ENTTEC DMX USB PRO MK2 MIDI CONTROL

[MIDIDMX]

Hi All,

I have created this thread for specific MIDI DMX control information on this new hardware, and in particular on the MIDI side of it.

I hope this thread will be very informative and hopefully become a point of reference on this particular subject to help to make informative decisions and to solve issues.

There is not much information around at the moment with regard to the MIDI side of this hardware, and this is another reason because I wanted to create this thread.

So here we are :

I just bought this hardware and updated all firmware and drivers to the latest version.

The DMX side it seems to be OK to me even though I didn't try everything yet.

As far as concern the MIDI side of it, while I presume the hardware works the way it is supposed to work from the point of view of the manufacturer, it doesn't work the way I wished it to.

Basically I expected it to behave like a normal MIDI USB hardware where you can view its midi ports on any software that supports MIDI.

With a normal (or shall we say standard ?) MIDI USB adapter you can use for example any MIDI sequencer and send/receive MIDI messages to and from the hardware.

Now as far as I can see (and I would strongly hope to be wrong and/or that this issue will be solved by Enttec) this is not possible with the Enttec USB PRO MK2.

I believe that the reason for that is that the software has to be written specifically to support the USB PRO MK2 otherwise MIDI won't work.

I have tried the USB PRO MK2 with Freestryler which support the USB PRO MK2, but even with that MIDI does not work.

So, I suppose that Freestyler has not implemented in its software the MIDI part of the USB PRO MK2.

The only time I have seen MIDI working on the USB PRO MK2 is when I tested it with the ENTEEC PRO MANAGER software.

Still I was surprised that not every note that I played on my MIDI keyboard was detected by it.

So, this is my experience and information on the MIDI side for this hardware .

What is yours ?

 

[MIDIDMX]

Hi All,

I have created this thread for specific MIDI DMX control information on this new hardware, and in particular on the MIDI side of it.

I hope this thread will be very informative and hopefully become a point of reference on this particular subject to help to make informative decisions and to solve issues.

There is not much information around at the moment with regard to the MIDI side of this hardware, and this is another reason because I wanted to create this thread.

Hi All,

I have some more news on the subject.

I enquired ENTTEC, basically I e-mailed my first posting on this forum to them, and here is their answer :

Hi
PRO MK2 relies on software for everything, apart from standalone mode (which once programmed can run by itself)
We added MIDI to this device the same way as DMX is supported.
So yes the software needs to support the MIDI commands for the PRO MK2 to be "MIDI compatible"
In technical terms, the software just treats the PRO mk2 like a MIDI device, and sends or receives MIDI from it
This behavior is similar to the way DMX is done through the device

With software development in the future, we are sure many apps will support the MIDI capabilities of PRO MK2
You might want to email Freestyler and ask them, maybe they are already working on it

So, I was right and I am very happy to share with you all this important information.

Let me say that having a MIDI background, I strongly disagree with the ENTTEC policy on the midi implementation on this hardware because there is already out there DMX software (including Freestyler) that support standard MIDI not to mention the MIDI hardware itself. A standard midi implementation would have allowed the user to be more creative, free and enjoy better (and faster) the harware and the software of choice. On top of that I strongly doubt that anything else than a standard midi implementation will work better.

Manufacturers : please think about it. You see, I will return the ENTTEC DMX USB PRO MK2 because it is not standard MIDI.

Moreover ENTTEC should make very clear from the begin that his hardware HAS NOT a standard midi implementation and that at least for the moment it supports only midi note on/off and velocity and not midi control messages (only when midi support for his hardware is implemented).

Finally I got a question for ENTTEC : why you did that ?

And I got a question for the competitor manufacturers : will you work on a alternative product with a standard midi implementation in the same price range of the ENTTEC DMX USB PRO MK2 ?

Thank you.

 

[JChenault]

I have done some DMX development with the Dmx-Pro Mk2 for our product, and have been happy with it so far. We implemented a way to allow a user to use his existing DMX console to run submasters in our software product.

I have not played at all with the Midi side of things so I cannot comment. ( posting to this thread as it seems to be about the Mk-2, not just the Midi side of it)

Curious what you are trying to do with the Mk2 and midi?

 

[MIDIDMX]

Hi JChenault,

Nice to talk to you, hope you are in good mood as I am not (see above).

This thread is supposed to be specific to the MIDI side of the ENTTEC DMX USB PRO MK2.

Here is my answer to you :

As I have a midi and music background, I have different MIDI software and hardware devices that I use to connect together and experiment different possibilities and configurations.

I have recently joined the DMX world (it was a old dream though).

As I like power, versatility, standards, end-user customizable interfaces, I decided to go for a DMX software solution (as recommended by many in this forum).

And as one of the important feature I wish to have with lights is to be able to synchronize them with music in all the possible ways and especially via MIDI, I thought the ENTTEC DMX USB PRO MK2 would have fit the bill.

As you know, it is not so as far as concern the STANDARD MIDI USB implementation of the ENTTEC DMX USB PRO MK.

So, to achieve the same effect I will have to go back to my STANDARD USB MIDI interface and route things with that.

To avoid any confusion and to be ultra clear (at risk to repeat myself with my previous postings) what I mean for STANDARD USB MIDI INTERFACE is that it has to show its MIDI IN/OUT ports to any software that supports STANDARD MIDI USB IMPLEMENTATION.

For various ways to use or wish to use MIDI with DMX I would recommend to read the many posting on this same forum by searching with the key word "MIDI".

Should you wish to implement midi support in your software, I recommend you to do so in a STANDARD WAY and to create an new thread specifically for this purpose (please let me know if you do).

Should you wish to discuss with me things that are not of public interest please let me know your e-mail and I will contact you .

Thank you.

Kind Regards