OT: midi mergers - and odd stuff you can do with 'em

[Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com>]

"yeah, i think i thought about that...it kinda starts to hurt my brain
thinking about all this crap.  anyhow, it appears that the eventide is
having a very difficult time processing midi from multiple sources."

There is a fun trick you can sometimes do using midi from multiple sources.

a) use several sources that produce MIDI clock. Have them set to any
clock speed.
b) merge them together with a simple merge box so the MIDI clock info
gets merged together, too.
c) send the merge box output to various destinations which react to
MIDI clock in a very audible fashion (e.g. drum computer, sequencer,
MIDI-synced arpeggiator etc.)
d) see what happens.
e) for added bonus: create a feedback loop and have one of the devices
mentioned under a) sync to the output of one of the devices mentioned
under c).

Huge loads of fun! One simple version would be to use two clock
sources (any), then first connect only one source, have (under c)) a
Repeater and a drum machine (say, Roland MC505) synced to the source
and record the drum machine into the Repeater. Both are running in
sync - for now. Then start the second MIDI clock source - and both
Repeater and MC505 do about anything with regard to clock, while
essentially playing the same pattern.

Note that for many years, I had been working without a proper merge
box (hell, I didn't even have a decent multi-port MIDI interface, as I
didn't use sequencers). Distributing the clock in a setup with
multiple synths, one groove box, various effects and a Repeater was
always a tricky riddle.
When I somewhat reorganized my home setup early in 2008 and decided
I'd need to be able to play those synths and drum machines without
having the computer powered up, I also arrived at your (i.e. MOTU)
conclusion.

Turned out that many times I'd like to include the Akai controller
(which is connected to the computer via USB), so most of the time I
really use MIDI OX for routing (worked really fine the last time I had
a complex hardware setup going).

       Rainer