Does anyone know of a good modern solution to this dilemma?  I have many devices I need to connect(>16) and cannot seem to find a modern interface that will give me a decent port count.  I have an Edirol UM-880 which I believe has great timing and low jitter, but has only 8 ports and is discontinued.  I'm surprised to find nobody has made either a solid 16 port interface or an 8 port interface that has good timing(the MOTU stuff is around and is 8x8 but is said to have somewhat poor timing consistency/jitter specs).

Does anyone know of a good interface that will likely have support for Win7/Win8 ?

M-Audio has up to 4x4 these days.
MIDI Solutions has a few variations as well.
The choices are not what they used to be for multi-port MIDI interfaces, that's for sure.

I use a lot of outboard midi as well, but I manage with a combination of midi ports off my interface card + a 2X2 USB interface + a couple of old Roland midi input/output selector rack units + a midi merge box + a bit of daisy-chaining. Yup, it's a rat's nest, but everything is plugged in (no patching required) and it always works just fine, so I'm content.  

I also have an Edirol UM-880 and I dread the day it decides to bite the dust. I have looked around and it seems about the only multi-port interfaces are Motu...

Motu makes good stuff but their 64 bit driver support sucks. Same way with M-audio units.

I don't believe I have ever seen any 16 port devices. Please let us know what you end up getting.

Kind regards,
Rick

The death toll for MIDI as we knew it. It's all about supply and demand. As the majority of people have switched 100% to soft synth's, the market for any MIDI devices has almost disappeared. Hang on to any older multi MIDI port hardware as it will become as hard to find as a dot matrix printer.

Cactus Music


The death toll for MIDI as we knew it. It's all about supply and demand. As the majority of people have switched 100% to soft synth's, the market for any MIDI devices has almost disappeared. Hang on to any older multi MIDI port hardware as it will become as hard to find as a dot matrix printer.

I find more and more I go to my hardware synths instead of soft synths. Soft synths may sound great but I just can't get the same sensitivity out of them as the hardware. Just sayin.

Motu makes good stuff but their 64 bit driver support sucks.

That's news to me!


I'm using a MOTU PCI-424 with a 1296 and two 2408 MkIIIs with two Micro Express MIDI interfaces under Win7 x64.


Not a single problem here.

The good news is there are some great bargains on ebay and craigslist for MIDI multiplexers because so few people want them nowadays. It would probably be worth posting a "want to buy" ad on craigslist, and to pick up a second UM-880 or similar unit.

I'm in a similar boat. I use an ancient 16-port MIDI switcher/multiplexer/combiner that was given to me by a generous forum member years ago. It's the centerpiece of my MIDI setup and I'd be lost if it stopped working. But back when I was initially searching for an affordable solution I ran across a surprising number of used MOTU MIDI Express units for sale on craigslist, so it's reassuring to know that a replacement would not be impossible to find.

No 16x16 MIDI interfaces I'm aware of, but there's the already-mentioned Edirol UM-880 and as you know MOTU do currently offer several USB 8x8 MIDI interfaces (ime both Roland/Edirol's and MOTU's MIDI gear has always been very good and well supported driver-wise).

Dunno how many MIDI devices you need to use all at once, but you might be able to get by with a single 8x8 interface along with a pair (or more) of 8x8 switchers/patchbays like the Yamaha MJC-8, with patches set up for different routing arrangements. Might be a mess of cabling on a desktop, but could be made somewhat neater in a rack.

Then there's always the old fallback of daisy-chaining via MIDI THRUs, which might save on the number of MIDI ports required. 

I'd venture the decline in MIDI interface offerings is due in part to the fact that a lot of current MIDI gear now uses USB for interfacing to computers, just like most current MIDI interfaces do, obviating the need for a dedicated MIDI interface.

Edit: Almost forgot, there's also the M-Audio Midisport 8x8 which although no longer in production is still supported afaik. Was M-Audio's top of the line interface, competing with MOTU's MIDI Timepiece offering, That said, haven't used any recent M-Audio interfaces (not since the old Midiman Portmans) so dunno.