I've just bought a MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV interface, and I am unable to get my Apple Performa 630 to recognise it at the modem or the serial port. FreeMIDI scans for the device, but every time reports that it has found a standard interface, not the MTP AV. If I go along with this and select the Timepiece manually from the menu of interfaces, the software is still unable to locate the unit. I've checked leads, unconnected all the MIDI devices so that all I have running is the MTP AV attached to the modem port, and still no success. The switch to select Mac instead of PC is set correctly on the front of the unit. If it is attached to the printer port instead of the modem port, FreeMIDI reports that it can't access this port because Appletalk is on, even though it isn't. What am I doing wrong?
Dave Keegan
Simon Stock of Musictrack replies: The version of FreeMIDI you are using may not be compatible with the Performa 630: we have had reports that versions later than 1.35 have this problem on your particular model of Mac. If you need to get hold of a different version of FreeMIDI, please contact Musictrack directly.
If FreeMIDI reports that it has found a Standard Interface, it means that the System Exclusive 'handshaking' between FreeMIDI and the MTP AV was not completed succesfully. This can also be caused by a stream of MIDI data coming into the MTP AV interrupting the SysEx, for example if a master keyboard or drum machine that constantly outputs MIDI Clock is connected: check if any of the red input LEDs are constantly lit to eliminate this as a possible cause.
If you manually set the interface type in FreeMIDI then you must also set the correct speed under 'Interface Settings', as it defaults to 'Not in Use'. However, if the interface is not found automatically when FreeMIDI scans, it is indicative of a problem of some kind.
Finally, as an aside, unless you are using MOTU sequencing or scoring software, creating a full FreeMIDI configuration may be something of a red herring, in that other brands of sequencer (such as Logic and Cubase) do not support FreeMIDI, and therefore do not 'read' the configuration file. You do need to create a FreeMIDI configuration file in order to run the Console editing software, but all this needs to contain is the interface itself.