mandag den 10. februar 2014

Emagic amt8 USB MIDI interface







I always liked that blue colour!

When using lots of external MIDI devices, a dedicated multiport interface definitely is a must have. The Emagic (the creators of Logic) line of interfaces includes the Unitor8, Unitor8 mk-II, amt8 and mt4. They have USB and serial connections for mac and PC, except for the original Unitor8, that only has serial. The Unitor8 units have some extra timing features (like smpt) but, I don't know much about that. I don't think it is of much use these days. I got the the amt8 with 8 MIDI ports, USB and serial. It also has the ability to work in stand alone mode, so you don't have to run your synths through a DAW, but have direct access to your MIDI devices. All you have to do is push and hold the patch/panic button until the lights blink, and you will be in stand alone mode. Repeat the procedure and You are back in normal MIDI interface mode.

This interface, by many seen as outdated, is actually still supported in OSX 10.9 and runs perfectly in this environment, probably because Apple bought Emagic in 2002. The original pref pane, however, has not been working since OSX 10.4. Fortunately there is a solution for this...
Kurt Arnlund has written his own pref pane that works from OSX 10.5 and up and it is available for free from his site. You need this pref pane to program the MIDI interface for stand alone mode. He was also kind enough to email me an application to filter out certain sysex messages and generally very helpful. You can also find the user manual on his site.

Selecting patches for stand alone mode.

The Unito8 Pref pane icon



My unit was very cheap, just about 30 EUR, but it came without a power supply. The unit requires 9 VAC, which I had available on a broken Commodore 64 computer psu. These power supplies have both 9 VAC and 5 VDC and are known to fail on the 5 VDC line. I had one of those lying around with a faulty 5 VDC line, so now that works happily together with my Emagic amt8 :-) If you should come across a cheap unit without a powersupply, don't hesitate to buy it, since you could easily get a new one from a thrift shop or maybe ebay. Just make sure it is 9 VAC and 1000 mA.

Bargain alert!! If You own an amt8 or Unitor8 mk-II with USB, but need more than 8 MIDI ports, then you should look for an original Unitor8 without USB. Nobody wants these anymore, since they are practically useless with only serial connection, especially on the mac. So it should be quite possible to get one for a very decent price. Here is the trick: If you already own a unit with USB, then you can connect it to a unit without USB via serial cable. This way you would get 8 extra MIDI ports without using another USB port on your mac! And it's cheap too!! You can chain up to 8 units together this way.

All in all, this unit is rock solid and highly recommended. I am definately looking out for an original Unitor8, to get those eight extra MIDI ports.


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