Does anyone have the MOTU Midi Timepiece II manual?

Mohoyoho

Does anyone have the MOTU Midi Timepiece II manual? I just bought one at a very reasonable price, but there is no manual. I'm not even sure what all it can do or how to go about it.

mysterioz · Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Cincinnati

me too! I tried emailing Motu, but apparently they won't even sell me a manual. I was going to make my home studio based around Motu equipment, but that kind of support scares me...

I've been watching ebay, but does anyone know of somewhere else to buy a manual perhaps?

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:28 pm Post subject:

Didn´t Motu once have an ftp server with all sorts of stuff? PDfs of all manuals for all their old gear and stuff like that?? It might be 5 years ago or so I used that service.
Hmm.. it doesn´t seem they have an ftp server anymore. Sad!

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:30 pm Post subject:

I just checked out their website. It seems someone at MOTU cleaned out all the good stuff. Shocked

seraph · Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:35 pm Post subject:

I would suggest, next time, to make sure to buy ONLY stuff that comes with all its documentation. probably that interface was "reasonably priced" for the lack of it.

mysterioz · Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Cincinnati

Mohoyoho · Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:44 pm Post subject:

I bought mine for $15. I'm not even sure I know what it does.

mysterioz · Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Cincinnati

Well, it's an 8in 8 out midi patch bay. I'm a little confused about the extra midi on the front, and the hardware menus make no sense to me, except selecting midi channel. Looks like it can be pre-programmed with several default configurations. Not sure what it can do connected to a computer, but I suppose I will find out when I hook it up and install the software scratch

Mohoyoho · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:54 pm Post subject:

Do you think it will work without a computer? I think it will only work with Macs. I've had this thing for quite awhile and have never powered it up.

mysterioz · Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Cincinnati

You can download some software in the downloads section at motu for the MTP II, I assume it is to program the patches, and I believe a driver is listed for all MTP serial devices.

The 8 pin din connector on the back is a Mac serial port, but a din8 to db9 connector. They're both RS232 standard, so it should work with any serial port. The other two din8 connectors are a through, I think it has a picture of a modem, and a "network" which I believe is for connecting multiple of these.

It is definately able to be used alone as a midi patch bay, but that is all I know at this point.

Mohoyoho · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:46 am Post subject:

Thanks for the info.

EdisonRex · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:43 am Post subject:

I might actually have a manual for one of these as I just decommissioned one when I got my G5 and lost the serial port. I'll root around and see if I still have the manual. They are very very nice MIDI network hubs, and were supported fine in OSX until recently when the hardware stopped having serial ports.

EdisonRex · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:55 am Post subject:

No manual, but check out this link for some good technical discussion of the MTP2 and running it on a PC.

Now I'm wondering if I ever had a manual for this thing. I got mine in 1995 or so, and plugged it into my Mac Quadra and fired up Performer which was running FreeMIDI and it just... worked...

I'll poke around in my archives some more though. Amazing not a single hit for a manual for this thing, anywhere, even by it's other names.

ggm1960 · Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 37 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

The link is:

-> http://cid-6f2ce1aec0191d74.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/MOTU_MTPII

pdman2 · Joined: Oct 22, 2007 Posts: 5 Location: North Shore

I too have one of these I picked up cheap.
I think that you can get the docs and manuals from MOTU but you have to fill out a big lonf form and enter serial numbers and stuff like that.
At the time I was to busy to fill out the complete form and I have so many other projects and stuff plus I like to play the gear not just work on stuff all the time.

Yes , they should have a download section for their discontinued or obsolete equipment. Alesis is the same way and really bad for old documentation. At least we have the Net and folks scanning and posting all kinds of schematics , manuals, etc. Much better that the old days.
Thanks

ggm1960 · Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 37 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

It's crazy. I went ahead and bought a "buy it now" Midi Express XT with the parallel port for $35 shortly after getting the MTP II. I got it to work fine on a parallel port of one of my PCs and went with that as my solution.

I couldn't stand it though and recently I bought an Apple Powerbook G3 Lombard on eBay for $75 (plus another $75 or so for additional parts) just to hook up that MTP II and make sure it works right!

drapdap · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:04 am Post subject:

Good News!

i've found a hard copy of the manual!!!!
will scan it and upload it soon.

i was able to use this thing both beforehand with an old mac laptop and now my current pc,
(Clockworks program works for routing) also as standalone,
but there's quite a few more things in the manual, SMPTE synching, etc...

hello
robert

Mohoyoho · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:54 am Post subject:

Great! Can't wait to read it. Thanks.

heyitsjimi · Joined: Jan 24, 2008 Posts: 7 Location: Florida Gulf Coast

I have a bid in on a newer MTP on eBay. It doesn't have a manual either, so I'm pretty gassed that drapdab is gonna upload one. Even though the one I'm looking at is newer, wouldn't you think the nuts and bolts of it should be pretty much the same?

ggm1960 · Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 37 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

I'd forgotten all about this post till e-mail alert recently.

Since I'd posted here I've become a real expert on these units and have spent the money to prove it!

I now have a MTP II, Midi Express XT serial/parallel, and a MTP AV-USB.
I bought a manual for the MTP II off eBay for $8-9 but I didn't really need it because the MTP AV came with a manual and the units function nearly identically. I bought a Mac Powerbook G3 "Lombard" 333mhz laptop running OS9, three USB to serial interfaces (3rd time was a charm!) and recently bought a Powerbook G4 15" 1.5Mhz that I upgrades to OSX 10.4.11.

The MTP units really are fantastic with great features. The easiest and best way to set them up is with a Mac computer running OS9, in fact, there are a couple features (modifiers and midi canons) that can't be accessed any other way.

If you really want to get the most out of these units (I use patches, modifiers and midi canons for my live performances) you have no choice but to get an old mac, fortunately the old serial macs can be had cheap on eBay.

If you only need the unit for midi merging and routing that's easily done with the WinXP or OSX version of Clockworks.

Don't hesitate to ask me questions about these units, perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.

Mohoyoho · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:59 pm Post subject:

I would love to know how to use it for routing and merging with WinXP.

ggm1960 · Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 37 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

Mohoyoho · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:07 am Post subject:

Wonderful! I really appreciate it.

ggm1960 · Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 37 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

Ok, here's the deal.
I posted the chapter 12 file here:

The link is:

-> http://cid-6f2ce1aec0191d74.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/MOTU_MTPII

Mohoyoho · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:31 pm Post subject:

got it! Thanks!