This topic might have already been overdone, but my poor search skills did not turn up any obvious threads. Based on some of the amazing music posted on this forum, I'm thinking people have solved the audio/midi routing puzzle when multiple hardware synthesizers are involved. My interest is mostly regarding MIDI routing, but I'm curious about what you are using for audio paths as well.
My setup is currently:
- Mac
- Logic Pro X
- 5 hardware synths, 3 with keybeds and 2 desktop modules
- Audio from all synths plugged into a relatively old/small Yamaha MW10 mixer
- Audio from the mixer sent to RME Babyface Pro FS (with main outputs sent to studio monitors and USB to the Mac)
- MIDI routing handled by iConnectivity mioXM
- Each synth plugged into the mioXM with either a USB cable or MIDI cables as supported by the synth
- mioXM plugged directly into google mesh "puck"
- Mac connected to the mioXM via IP (RTP)
When things work: For the most part, this all works very nicely and does everything I need. I don't have to touch a single cable. I can set the routing such that I can play one keyboard and have the MIDI routed to one or more other keyboards, route the MIDI in/out of the synthesizers between Logic Pro (via RTP), record vocals and have two headphone monitors via ADAT on the RME Babyface, mix the volume of all five synthesizers playing all at once being controlled by Logic Pro through multiple RTP channels, etc. It can be a joyful experience when it just works.
But they don't always work: Often, things do not work nicely/perfectly. And it makes me want to scream and bash my head against the wall. The mioXM software (Auracle) often crashes, the mioXM device itself sometimes simply stops working (it crashes) and has to be restarted, I had to restart Logic Pro a couple days ago to get some MIDI recording working, the laptop itself needed to be restarted last weekend to (unknowingly) fix a core MIDI crash that I only realized because the shutdown stopped and said "core midi" was not responding. And today (I'm embarrassed to admit), it took me over an hour to get audio recording working through the RME Babyface ... and I still don't know what was going on there. I *think* the audio was not being routed through "input 3/4" from the Babyface but instead ... it really doesn't matter. I went through a long process of debugging by using an old laptop, using microphone inputs, changing audio interfaces, etc. Totally a waste of "musical" time.
I am a software developer by profession and have been at it a long time, and I enjoy it. So I think (maybe naively) I am pretty good at figuring these things out and getting stuff working. But I would rather not have to do that same kind of problem solving when attempting to write/record music. I want to make cool tunes and sick beats and not figure out why a MIDI or audio routing problem exists. I would imagine that real musicians enjoy this problem-solving even less (due to the waste of time=money if nothing else). So I can't help but wonder if I am simply a technological musical idiot and am the only person running into the myriad problems with the technology or if it is a solved problem.
What workflow do you use to avoid the debugging pain?
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