Using Pulsar/Luna midi ports for System Exclusive data

w_ellis · Post by **w_ellis** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 8:42 am

Hi there,

I've got a Luna II and Pulsar II (24 ADAT) cards, so I have 3 midi in/out ports. I was intending on using a pair of these ports for connecting to my JV2080 using a PC-based editor/librarian.

I'm sure I had read somewhere before that Pulsar midi ports are not reliable for system exclusive data, but I may have misunderstood the context. Can anyone tell me if this is the case?

Also, if anyone has any good recommendations for a suitable editor/librarian it would be appreciated. Preferably free, as I'm not after anything too sophisticated.

Cheers,
Will

kimgr · Post by **kimgr** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 10:46 am

Don't use Creamware midiports if you can avoid it.
The technical explanation: They suck ! (The midiports, that is.)

Kim.

w_ellis · Post by **w_ellis** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 10:55 am

I've got a Midiman 2x4 parallel port interface too, but I've had so much difficulty trying to get it to work that I gave up in the end. The outs were always fine but the in's would work for a little while and then stop. Also Cubase became unusable, with crashes etc. as soon as I had it working.

The box has been back to Midiman, who reckon that there are no hardware issues with it. Maybe when I get a new computer (in the next few weeks) I'll try it out again, but I've wasted so much time on it already that I'm loath too. Having said that, there's no XP drivers for it, so I'll probably not bother.

Thanks for the advice though.

Cheers,
Will

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 11:25 am

Make sure you backup the data from your synth first, before sending stuff to it. On a couple occasions, my Pc1600x memory became corrupted and I had to initialise it's memory. It was no problem, cos I have all sysex on my drives. But on a first attempt it could be quite annoying.
In the sysex editor, try setting higher delay times and buffer for more reliable, but slower transfers. Single parameter edits are no problem, but my Pc1600x crashes if I want to send a full machine state at once.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 9:20 am

Same thing with my kenton control freak... I use sounddiver, and there is a parameter to slow down everything. If i cut speed by half, i can transfer all data i want without any loss or crash... But at full speed, i can barely send 2-3 command at a time.

w_ellis · Post by **w_ellis** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 10:48 am

Okay then, one further question. Would you say that the Creamware midi-ports are better or worse than a game-port midi interface. There will be one on the new motherboard I am thinking of buying (Gigabyte GA-8IGXP).

Cheers,
Will