Has anybody tried it with Ntrack?
I just ran across a utility called ipMidi at www.nerds.de. It purports to be able to send midi signals between computers over ethernet (as a native driver) with near 0 latency with up to 20 midi ports available. They suggest that you can do it over wireless connections. Best of all it there is a free demo. It is fully functional except that after it runs for an hour, it shuts down until you reboot, and then you get another hour and so on. Are there any N-trackers out there who have tried ipMidi?
T
I have not tried it T… but if I recall correctly, there is a freebie app out there that does MIDI over Ethernet. Reports on their page said it worked well.
If I find it, I’ll be back…
D
OK found it HERE… but unfortunately, it is now a commercial product. $149 worth…
D
This is what I’ve got in mind: I’ve got several computers that can run VSTIs on lean hosts that are hooked up to their own beefy power amps and speakers. And they are all hooked up to my home network. I’m getting the itch to midi them all together so that they are controlled from a single digital piano keyboard.
Imagine this: arpegiator to the right, FreeAlpha to the left, and Crystal wheezing away from the other side of the room. Cacophony maybe? Impress the neighbors? I think that the effect will be quite different from having them all play through one set of speakers… and hopefully no crackles from overloaded CPUs. Sure wish that I could really play keyboards.
T
Sounds cool… I still think there is a freebie out there. I remember reading about it on some forum or another. If I run up on it, I’ll let you know… muttering to self Dag nabbit! Where’s that @#$% link…
D
Springer, if you do that, let us know. Puts me in mind of some musique concrete installations I have seen.
I have dug and dug… the only things I come up with are commercial softwares. ($$$$) The one I remember and linked up ^ there somewhere was shareware once upon a time and CHEAP like 20 bucks or so… I even browsed through both of my PC’s “Downloaded_Crap” folders to see if I still had a copy. No luck… sorry.
D
Thanks Diogenes - for all the effort. My son will be home from the University of Cincinatti for Christmas holidays soon. I think we’ll set it up then. We enjoy working on projects like that together.
I also have a motive beyond the desire to generate a mad midi-cacophony. A lot of the stuff that my son is recording now is pushing his computer over the edge (lots of tracks, effects, and VSTis), and I’d really like to find a way to distribute the processing load on his projects. We thought about getting one of the Muse Receptor hardware VST hosts for him, but cost is just too great. I’m hoping that the networked midi/vsti/host computers will prove helpful to him too. It should be possible to send recorded midi signals out to the ‘slave’ computer (i.e. the one running the VSTI), and to record the audio output that it generates back to another track - right? It seems like this could be advantageous for CPU intensive VSTI synths. No doubt that there will be some need for latency compensation. I have one of the computer/VSTI hosts that we will use hooked directly to a midi keyboard now, and there is no perceptible latency in the response of VSTIs running on it, so maybe the latency issues will not be too great.
Tom, I’ll post something about our experiences as we dig into the project. The big uncertainty in my mind right now is whether I can find a lean VSTi host to run on the ‘slave systems’ that will be compatible with the ipMidi drivers. I guess we’ll find out…
T
Hi T,
Have a look at Reaper. Yeah, it will mean learning a new app but I have become addicted to it. It WORKS. I can get stuff done for a change. Anyway, REAPER offers ReaMote which is a networking application that runs virtual effects and instruments on another PC or PC’s while Reaper runs on your local box. Initial reports I’ve heard are very promising.
Best of all, the download is fully functional, non-expiring software. You only pay for it if you decide to do so. I liked it so well I bought a license. I use it everyday on every project now. I’m still a n-Track fan boy but it has to get more STABLE and efficient before I can go back.
D
Thanks again D. I have fiddled around with Reaper, and have been impressed. Did not notice the ReaMote feature… It does sound as if might have potential. I will check it out. I got the impression that Reapers piano roll midi editor was a bit more limited than in n-Track. Did I miss something there too?
T
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| I got the impression that Reapers piano roll midi editor was a bit more limited than in n-Track. Did I miss something there too? |
MIDI is getting better in Reaper with almost every build. The developer (Justin Frankel of WinAMP and Nullsoft fame) checks the forum regularly and adds items from the “Wishlist” constantly. It’s a cool proggie.
D