Alan,
>Thanks for your help everyone on my midi challenge. It seems the best
>way forward is to invest slightly more and buy a true multiport midi
>interface as Jon suggests. I cannot quite justify going to the
>expense of a MOTU Midi Express, so my choices would appear to be the
>MOTU Pocket Express, the MOTU PC Midi Flyer or the Midiman Portman
>2x4.
I have no experience with any of the three devices you mention. FWIW, however, I was looking at a similar dilemma about a year ago, except I was looking for an 8x8 patchbay with USB interface. My choices were the MOTU MIDI Express USB and the MIDIman MIDIsport 8x8/s.
I found MOTU to be very Mac-savvy, but much less so on the PC side. In fact, the MIDI Express USB was shipped for about a year with no Windows USB drivers! I wisely held off, waiting for the Windows support, and every time I'd call MOTU (who is more or less "local" to me), I would get a 'pretty soon' kind of response. They now have full OS support, but it was a long time coming.
MIDIman has good PC support; I've heard that their Mac knowledge is somewhat lacking. From the PC side of things, the only issue I currently have is that I cannot run a MIDIsport 8x8/s and a MIDIsport 2x2 on the same PC at the same time; at least, not under Windows 2000 Pro. Since this is a somewhat esoteric case, I've learned to live with it, and new drivers have been promised.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
Regards,
-BW
--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions™
http://music.ashbysolutions.comCloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@...