Does anyone have the MOTU Midi Timepiece II manual?

[TheMysticBook]

I agree, our set up is a bit complex to say the least. Perhaps if I explained the reason for it all, it might be easier to visualize.

As I said before, there are two of us performing. Each of us has our own "station". Angie (my partner) carries most of the load. We will have some basic drums and bass pre-recorded and she runs that off of
her station via Ableton Live 8. She makes her changes (verse, chorus, bridge, solos, ect...) using a Korg PadKontrol. She also does some keyboard work and we share the vocals. Sometimes, depending on the
song, we may pre-record some background instruments (strings, keyboards, ect...)

I probably do 70 percent of the lead vocals and use a DigiTech Vocalist Live 2 for harmony (it will determine harmony depending on the guitar chords played). Most songs start with a basic drum beat and/or bass and I will lay down a guitar look, percussion loop and/or keyboard loop, then play either live guitar or live keyboard for the rest of the song. Obviously, not all songs start and are played this way otherwise the "coolness" of what we are doing can get old after a while, so we try to mix it up.

I use two keyboards at my station as well as Ableton Live 8 also. I control Ableton with a Beringer FCB 1010 foot controller, but I can also make changes on Angie's computer with the FCB 1010 if she is doing lead vocal at the time so she's not standing at the mic with the PadKontrol in her hand. One of my Keyboards connects to my computer via MIDI cable, the other (Oxygen 61) connects via USB.

Angie uses an Alesis Firewire MultiMix mixer as her "sound card" and I use a PCI MiaMIDI for mine. Angie's computer connects to my comptuer using her MIDI in/out of the PadKontrol into the MIDI in/out of my MiaMIDI PCI soundcard. Nothing else is in this loop. My Korg keyboard connects to my comptuer with a 2x2 and my electronic drums (Yamaha DD55) connects to Angie's computer via a UNO 1x1.

My guitar runs through my Vocalizer, then through a small Beringer mixer, then into my computer via the MiaMidi. The percussion runs through a rack mounted Beringer mixer (mics on all) then mixed down and goes into Angie's computer via the Alesis, which sends her audio out to the main Beringer Mixer. My audio out goes directly into the main mixer so any guitar or keyboard looping is done on my computer. I won't go into the sub, cross over, amps, lighting and all that since it is not relevant.

So basically, we have it set up so that Angie's station is the master, mine is the slave and all the instruments (either drums, guitar or MIDI) process through her computer. We pretty much run independant of each other with the exception of the times I need to control her station with the food controller.

The only problem we are having is MIDI sync between the two computers. Since all the other crap is outside of the loop (except my foot controller, which, if need be, will no longer be in the loop) what I was hoping to do is just use the MOTU Timepiece II as a master clock to keep the two computers in sync as slaves.

I hope that gave a better visual to what we are doing. I realize it sounds extremly complex, but in really, it isn't as much as it sounds in text. Although I may have just made it sound worse So, can the MOTU, not hooked to the computer, but only sending a "Master Clock" via MIDI cables...and using the front panel controls, work to keep the computers in sync?

Thanks again,
Rob

[ggm1960]

You're not using laptop computers?

You mention the PadKontrol midi in/outs to yours but I'm assuming that it's also connected to hers via USB?

How is the 1010 able to control both computers?

So the PCI MiaMIDI has only one midi port and you've also got another dual port midi<->USB adapter?

Now her computer also has a single midi port<->USB adapter for the dd55 to connect to her computer?


How is it that her station is setup as the master and yours is the slave? Is that an option/setting within Live?

A diagram of the hookups would be best.

In the end though I think one copy of Live really has to be in control of the whole rig.

Frankly I don't think the MTP II is going to help you because the only thing available to you are the midi ports which can be setup for routing/merging/splitting only.

[ggm1960]

Here's another lesson on MTP's.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dappletalk%2Bconnector%26b%3D22%26ni%3D21%26ei%3DUTF-8%26pstart%3D1%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26fr2%3Dtab-web&w=201&h=171&imgurl=www.interfacebus.com%2FApple_MiniDin-8_Serial.gif&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interfacebus.com%2FApple_MiniDIN_PinOut.html&size=4k&name=Apple+MiniDin+8+...&p=appletalk+connector&oid=8f01cf55d4ef98fc&fr2=tab-web&no=42&tt=44&b=22&ni=21&sigr=11lhfud2u&sigi=11f25a833&sigb=13oqjbsq2

The image shows the appletalk cable pin out. In order to network two units together (in my case a MTP AV USB to a MTP II) to get 16 ports you need a cable where, looking face on to the connectors each connection connects to the opposite side. In other words if you had an extender the wires would flow straight through.
1 -> 2
3 -> 5
6 -> 8