Question about I/O on D8B...

[BrianJ]

Ok...thanks guys...! I'm supposed to be picking it up Sunday afternoon, so I have a day or so to try to look at the manual and see if I can check it out the best I can.

If anyone thinks of anything else I should check, please let me know.

Or, if you can think of an easy way to get the MTC signal to the board I can run that fader program...so let me know if you can think of a simple way to do that...thanks again!

Brian

[anyhorizon]

Surely the seller has some method of generating MTC. If not you'll need some kind of box that spits out MIDI from a DAW or similar.

Peter

[BrianJ]

Surely the seller has some method of generating MTC. If not you'll need some kind of box that spits out MIDI from a DAW or similar.

Peter

This is what I was thinking...I should be able to configure REAPER or CUBASE to send whatever I need out through the USB to midi converter. So, all I need to know is what does the d8b need to see? Is MTC just a midi counting protocol? Sort of like the digital timekeeper of the music? If so, the d8b would just need to see that "tick" "tick" "tick" then, yes? All I'd have to do is setup an MTC output in reaper and hit the play button...

[FrankH]

Brian:

Two things. (1) I have no idea what Reaper's MTC/MMC capabilities are. (2) I have no idea what you are using for a MIDI interface. That said....here's how it should work, theortically:

Reaper must generate an MTC signal. In Reaper, this signal must be routed to a MIDI output on your USB MIDI I/O box.

The MIDI output on the USB MIDI box (that has been assigned to send MTC) should be connected to the MIDI In on the back of the D8Bs CPU.

If Reaper is sending out the appropriate MTC signal, the D8B's Locater Readout should start matching Reaper's song position as Reaper plays. This could be displayed as Time Code or Bars and Beats on the D8B.

The D8B's MIDI Out should be connected to an input connector on the USB MIDI I/O.

Reaper should be set (assuming Reaper has a setup page that does this) to receive MMC from the USB MIDI I/O port you connected the D8B to.

Setting it up this way makes it possible for the D8B to control Reaper's Transport.....and visa versa.

It works like this: Press PLAY on the D8B and it sends an MMC PLAY command to Reaper. Reaper starts playing and immediately sends MTC to the D8B (which it reads) and begins runnning its transport. Hitting STOP on the D8B sends an MMC Stop command to Reaper...which stops it and stops sending MTC to the D8B.

Any Record armed tracks on Reaper will respond to the D8Bs master RECORD button. FF and REW should work as well, although how well depends upon on how sophisticated Reaper's MTC/MMC and/or Transport/Sync setup menus are.

Additionally, the D8B's jog wheel may be able to control Reaper. In some DAWs this works, in others, it doesn't. Some DAW's only respond to the D8B's Jog wheel if the the D8B is in HUI mode and the receiving DAW has an appropriate generic HUI controller translator available.

Of note: D8B's automation requires MTC in order to function.

[BrianJ]

Ok Frank! What you just described is exactly how my old Roland vs2480 connects to my Roland Fantom G8 keyboard...so, what I'm thinking is that I try to setup reaper/cubase to send MTC to my Rolang G8 and if that works like you describe then I'll know that my DAW is doing what it needs to an it should work with the d8b...!

[FrankH]

Brian:

It sounds like the only unknown element (to me) is what you are using for a MIDI I/O. If you want to incorporate your Fantom and a DAW with the D8B, this device should support, at a minimum of at least two independent MIDI Ins and Outs for hassel-free results.

As for Cubase, I can tell you the setup I described above will work like a charm. As a matter of fact, Cubase is responsible for a little known D8B feature: its ability to correctly deal with looping MTC, which Cubase is capable of outputting (via a Preference*). When we were testing the D8B before release, I was using Cubase as the test DAW with an 8 bar loop. The D8B would "hiccup" as the incoming MTC looped back to the start point. If the D8B was recording automation, it would pop out Record mode at the loop-back point. After pointing this out to Bob Tudor, he wrote a routine to prevent that.

*Cubase is capable of outputting an uninterrupted MTC stream when in loop mode, or not, depending on settings.

[BrianJ]

Ok, cool!

Oh, one more question...he said he doesn't have an old ps2 mouse to use for the CPU...will a USB mouse with the USB to ps2 adapter work? Or do I need to try to find an actual ps2 mouse?

Also, I think for now it's going to be a bit complicated to try to run the fader program once I get there, especially not knowing what all he has there and what not. So, I suppose I'll just try to make sure all the faders respond to onscreen movements, and that the v faders and what not appear to be doing what they're supposed to ...I'll do more extensive testing later...

I'm supposed to pick it up tomorrow, God willing...so we'll see what happens! Thanks so much for everyones input...!

[synthjoe]

Might be a little late to the party, but the excellent MIDI-OX program has the capability of sending MTC (plus displays anything sent across MIDI, whether IN or OUT). In 'Options/MIDI devices' you can choose the port where you want to send MTC, then in 'View/MTC...' you can generate outgoing MTC by hitting play (or see incoming MTC, for that matter). Just for future reference.

If the mouse came with a factory USB/PS2 converter, then it should work. Not all USB mice are capable of working with such converters, as it is a simple plug converter. USB vs. PS2 protocol selection happens inside the mouse, as the two are quite different and hence conversion far more complex than a simple dongle would handle. The mouse electronics will know from the incoming signals whether it was connected to a PS2 or USB port and communicate accordingly - at least in those cases where the mouse was provisioned to work with such a converter..

[BrianJ]

Thanks Joe...!

I picked up the d8b yesterday, I had an old ps2 mouse that worked. Didn't worry about trying to get the midi stuff working...would have taken too long...

I did go through the different banks and the faders moved like thy should, communication to/from the screen worked well. Everything seemed to be in order...now that I've got it home I'll try to figure out the fader program...is there a way to see i it's already installed? He said when he first got the board he did that to check everything...could it still be stored in the pc ?

Brian

[Petersueco]

Look for a file named frolickingfaders99.d8b and open it. Run the MTC code into the d8b and enjoy. It would be located in the Session3 or Session5 directories.