Re: 2 computers and midi

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Posted by William Manganaro on October 12, 2002 at 14:51:53:

In Reply to: Re: 2 computers and midi posted by Plamen on September 26, 2002 at 08:38:13:


: in fact, i intend to use the first computer as a sequencer, and the other - to produce the sound
: i want to sync them
: so, i need two midi interfaces?

: thanks
: plamen

Plamen,

You may know this already, but, I will tell you anyway. You can sequence and generate sound all in one computer if it has enough CPU power and resources to do so. Unless you absolutly must use another computer as a sound generator then read on. If you are using a computer sequencer running for example CAKEWALK SONAR to control another independant computer running a soft synthesizer or sampler such as Gigasampler then one MIDI INPUT/OUTPUT port is all that is required if 16 channels will suffice. In this case, the sound generating computer is slave to the sequencer and they will be synchronized by the fact that the slave is playing notes as they are received from the sequencer. If you are running two separate sequencing packages, then you will have to use MIDI clock to synchronize the two computers. This CLOCK is sent on the same port as the MIDI song and controller data is sent on so a separate port is not required for synchronization. The clock is usually 24 PPQN or 24 clock messages per quarter note interval. One computer will have to be the master (SET MIDI CLOCK TO INTERNAL) and the other a slave (SET MIDI CLOCK EXT.) ..... Hope all this helps and I was not to verbose .... I am sure more people will elaborate on some of my points. LOL

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