router + clockbox

[dirtyoldman]

Hi guys, i'm new to the forum and am thinking about building my first MidiBox. Since i don't have much experience i thought that i should start with something simple...

I have a soundcard with one midi in and one midi out and so i thought the midi router seemed like a good place to start. but i also thought a clockbox would be usefull to have, since me and a friend want to laptop dj/perform together.

i was thinking of combining the two into one case, so that i have bidirectional midi-routing and i can set the bpm to the slaves using one core module in the box. from what i can tell the router is bidirectional whereas the clock only sends out a midi clock

so i guess my question is: is what i envision redundant since the multiclock project already has 8 possible midi connections or does it make sense to pair the two?

[stryd_one]

Welcome aboard :)

so i guess my question is: is what i envision redundant since the multiclock project already has 8 possible midi connections or does it make sense to pair the two?

That depends on how you want to cable it! They are entirely different things really.

[dirtyoldman]

I imagine my setup being something like this:

laptop midi out >  router > synth (e.g. sid)

router > sampler (e.g MPC)

router > friends laptops' midi in

and the master clock so that everything stays in sync and be able to easily change the bpm without having to change it in the host software on my laptop.

or should i just make the router and then set my laptop as the master, and friends laptop + gear as slave and just change the bpm on my laptop using either the mouse or an external controller like the MB64?

[stryd_one]

Ahh I see :)

Well it's clear you need the router... Perhaps you could do this:

Build the core for your router.

Put the clockbox app on it to try it out and get to know it a little better.

Build the IIC_MIDI modules and finish the box off as a router.

Try PC as clock generator, and if you don't like it, build the clockbox too :)

But for your purposes, I think that a single clockbox sending a single port with clock signals, connected to a router input, is more useful than a multi-port clock.

It has crossed my mind that maybe, just maybe, the clockbox, or a minimised variant of it, could even run on the same core as the router (so, router+clockbox in one app). That might be something to experiment with later on.... It may not work due to timing issues though.

[dirtyoldman]

thanks i like that suggestion. this is why i dig midibox, it's nice and modular thus opening it up to experimentation and adapting to ones needs. i'm gonna try your suggestion and see how it works from there. perhaps in the future i'll post up a new kind of box who knows!

thanks again for the feedback!

[stryd_one]

looking forward to the dirty old midibox  :D