Missing piece(s) in the jigsaw?

[BRITinDETROIT]

I'm going for a midi set-up where I can 'play around' whether I'm connected to a computer or not, and then connect to my Qosmio G10 (laptop) when I want to record & sequence, etc. The Qosmio has 4 USB 2.0 ports, a IEE1394 port, a S/PDIF port and a type II PC card slot as standard, although it would have been nice to have some sort of docking station so you didin't have to connect/disconnect every time.

I've got a StudioRTA Mix Station desk with 6 rack spaces in my spare bedroom. So far, 4 of these spaces are taken by a Samson PowerBrite, a Proteus 2000, a Virtuoso 2000 & an Orbit-3. I've also got some expansion ROMs and eventually plan to fill all 7 spare slots. This should give me all the pre-sets, instruments, riffs & tweakability a guy could ever want.

Now I need to buy a 48 or 61-key USB contoller keyboard with PSU (probably a Radium 61), some active nearfields that physically fit the small desk (HS50Ms, TR5s or KRK V4s), but most importantly, some kind of midi/audio interface that brings it all together. Each Emu module has 2 midi-ins & 2 midi-outs, so does that mean I need an 8x8 midi interface as 6-in/6-out are needed if I want to take advantage of all 96 midi channels at the same time?

Also, don't I need another interface to be able to route the sounds to the monitors, especially when I'm not connected to my laptop?

Steve, 48 (too old to start really), Englishman no longer living in Detroit, now living & working in Snowy Sweden.

 

[BRITinDETROIT]

24 hours later.....

24 hours later & I've bought some KRK V4s on ebay!

I've also been looking at a TASCAM FW 1804 2u rack unit, but I'm not sure it will connect to the 3 Emu modules without daisy-chaining at least 2 of them together.

Does that mean that I lose some of the 96 available midi channels or 384 voice polyphony?

If I don't lose anything, the TASCAM seems to have it all and it fits nicely into the 2 rack spaces I have left....assuming I can connect the balanced stereo outs to the bi-amplified KRKs...

Anyone care to offer an opinion?

Steve

 

[altitude909]

The Tascam should work fine since it has 4 TRS outputs and its a nice interface to boot.

As far as your other question, I run a pretty big Midi rig (12 different instruments) and also like to unplug from the computer and use internal sequencers and the like but I just dont use the DAW software and use a good midi software patchbay. This way I can handle all midi traffic and filter/route clock any way I want and to be able to do this without a computer would be another piece or 2 of hardware, programming presets, and endless headaches that dont exist with software patching

Does that mean that I lose some of the 96 available midi channels or 384 voice polyphony?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. The poyphony of each device is fixed and you can send however many notes you want to it at the same time. If a device is multitimbaral, then you will need to dedicate a whole midi port to it. In either case, it has nothing to do with the audio interface. Any midi ports on the interface will be availiable at the same time as all other midi ports in your rig

 

[BRITinDETROIT]

Sorry for being a bit slow...

Sorry for being a bit slow...

In my Proteus 2000 manual it shows how to connect it for 'Basic', 'Studio' & 'Performance' set ups. For the studio set up, it shows 2 midi-in ports & 1 midi-out port connected to the midi interface. I have 3 of these EMU modules, so doesn't that mean that my midi interface (when I get it) will have 6 out & 3 in taken up by them. Add to that the controller keyboard, and that's 6 out & 4 in taken up. I know that there are 2 midi thru ports on each Emu module, but I don't understand if daisy chaining them together means that you only get the 32 channels instead of 96. I just want to be able to send data on all 96 channels at the same time if I want to.

I can buy a 1u 8x8 midi interface / patchbay, but then I need someting else to get the audio side & be able to plug the monitor speakers into (I don't want them plugged into my laptop).

Be gentle with me ok.... lmao

Steve.