MIDI Interface hell

[jgourd]

When I got my MotorMix, I had to get a MIDI interface. I bought a USB Fastlane from MOTU.

The first thing I noticed was that my PC would not shut down all the way when the MIDI interface was connected.

I did a little research about USB MIDI and VIA 133 chipsets and the basic recomendation was that USB is to be avoided in a DAW if possible because USB controllers "lock" the PCI bus a few thousand times a second while checking for new devices.

So I disable USB, and get a parallel port MIDIMAN MIDI box. While it does work, Logic blows up if the interface can't keep up with the data stream. This always happens when I switch banks on the MotorMix because it has to send a lot of MIDI data to move all 8 faders and update the display.

I talked to MIDI support for about 15 minutes and determined that the parallel port unit has to go back and I need a serial unit which should do the job.

GC has a nice return policy so taking the interface back is not a problem, the problem is that serial port MIDI interfaces are getting hard to come by. GC doesn't even stock them anymore. I am hesitant to buy one online because the return process can be difficult.

Now my question. What is the best serial MIDI interface I can get that is not overkill. I really only need 1 in and 1 out.

Thanks

[frederic]

E-Magic has smaller interfaces based on the AMT technology - I have both the Unitor 8 MKII and several AMT8 interfaces, daisychained together, connected via serial, and they work fine. When my friend brings over his MAC laptop of sorts, he attaches it to the USB port, and it still works fine.

The smallest one they have is 4 ports out, but its a reliable, well built 1/2 rack unit.

Hope that helps,