Midi player?!

Blor007

Inspired
Hi!

Currently in my band we play with metronome and a backing track. I'm using the fractal axe fx II which I very much enjoy. The only "problem" is , in live situations I want to be able to enjoy the show and not be tap dancing through different segments of the song... running back to my guitar board to control an expression pedal etc...

So the solution is: be like metallica and hire a fulltime guitar tech who's job is to switch between patches and presets troughout different songs right?
Or one could say, let a protools/cubase/logic session with all the midi data feed your axe fx II.

Now I don't really like computers in live situations and I don't have money for a guitar slav..euhhm tech. So I was wondering isn't there a hardware solution? So I'm looking for a hardware device that can play midi data. Like the Roland SPDS can play and trigger audio data I'm looking for something that can playback midi data.


Anyone got any ideas? :)
 
In the early 90s, I was using MIDI players to play backing tracks, change patches/effects and also control a light show. Great for just focussing on performance instead of control.

I used (I think) the Alesis Data Disk for a while and IIRC it has some issues. It doesn't lose timing, but each track needs to be contiguous (not split over the disk), otherwise you get dropouts when replaying sequences. So you can add songs to a disk, but if you ever delete a track, you need to wipe the disk and re-record all of the ones you want.

There was a Roland Sound Brush that worked much better. But these days, surely an iPad or laptop would be the way to go?
 
Why not just run a fully programmed Cubase track? As you are playing with a backing track anyway, it's no big deal to just set it up to send the required midi data aswell.

If you don't want to rely on a laptop, then you shouldn't rely on the Axe either, as it's basicly a computer in a fancy black case. ;)
 
Why not just run a fully programmed Cubase track? As you are playing with a backing track anyway, it's no big deal to just set it up to send the required midi data aswell.

If you don't want to rely on a laptop, then you shouldn't rely on the Axe either, as it's basicly a computer in a fancy black case. ;)

In all fairness, there is a big difference between using a laptop in a live setting versus using the AxeFX or an iPad for instance. The boot time for a CPU can be much longer and a bit unpredictable in a pressure situation. There is always the chance that the UBS driver doesn't load and suddenly your midi port isn't working (I have had it happen), so you have to reboot and wait. I have never had a purpose built device like the AxeFX exhibit the kinds of problems a CPU can give you. Of course an AxeFX (or any other piece of gear) can break or not work for some reason or another......but generally speaking it either works or it doesn't, there is wide range of potential problems between "working" and "not working" when using a CPU. An iPad, at least in my experience, is much more consistent, reliable and fast in a live setting.........but of course the software and hardware is limited and you can't always use the things you wish you could use with an iOS device.

Having used a laptop for many years live I can completely understand why a person would want to avoid it. We avoid it at pretty much all costs at this point too. At most of our shows setup times are too tight, we simply can't deal with the boot time and the potential problems.
 
As already mentioned you could go for Liquid Track. I´ve no first hand experience of Liquid Track, so I can´t really comment on how easy/hard it is to use or program.

An alternative to that is if you can find an old used MidiTemp MidiPlayer/Multistation with an HDD installed. Unfortunately way more clumsy to program and you´ll have to have that remote connected all the time too. But you may get quite a few more MIDI ports (depends on which model you´d find). Which you might benefit of (or not). All their rackmodels are sadly discontinued since some years ago.

I´ve got a MidiPlayer MP88W myself (8 IN / 8 OUT), which didn´t come with an 2,5" HDD (SCSI-2) installed. And it were much harder to find that kind of HDD than I initially thought it would be. Luckily, I´ve now managed to install an CF/SCSI adapter which is within the same size as an 2,5" HDD. And surprisingly it seems to actually work too. I haven´t tested it fully yet, but first initial test looks good.

On the plus side besides the abovementioned. You have some very powerful routing/filter/re-transmitting options too.
 
In all fairness, there is a big difference between using a laptop in a live setting versus using the AxeFX or an iPad for instance. The boot time for a CPU can be much longer and a bit unpredictable in a pressure situation. There is always the chance that the UBS driver doesn't load and suddenly your midi port isn't working (I have had it happen), so you have to reboot and wait. I have never had a purpose built device like the AxeFX exhibit the kinds of problems a CPU can give you. Of course an AxeFX (or any other piece of gear) can break or not work for some reason or another......but generally speaking it either works or it doesn't, there is wide range of potential problems between "working" and "not working" when using a CPU. An iPad, at least in my experience, is much more consistent, reliable and fast in a live setting.........but of course the software and hardware is limited and you can't always use the things you wish you could use with an iOS device.

Having used a laptop for many years live I can completely understand why a person would want to avoid it. We avoid it at pretty much all costs at this point too. At most of our shows setup times are too tight, we simply can't deal with the boot time and the potential problems.
I know all of this, but well, it's apples and oranges if we really think about it. You are seeing this from the perspective of using your everyday-at-home laptop for the extended purpose. Not a fair comparison with the Axe, that is heavily specialized and can not write your word document or browse porn.
Laptops or computers are very common in modern live situations. How long has it been you have seen a DJ without his macbook next to the turntable? Heck, my brother is even selling that as a marketing thing to actually swing around real CDs on a classic CD player instead of using the modern approach with midi turntables and traktor (unless people don't want to pay extra for this ;) ).

Would I use my home laptop and rely on it for that purpose? No. Would I use a dedicated laptop that I only use for live purposes and rely on it? Hell yes. And let's be honest here: every live situation has a moment where improvisation is needed. And the worst thing that can happen is that you have to manually select your presets at the gig.
 
I know all of this, but well, it's apples and oranges if we really think about it. You are seeing this from the perspective of using your everyday-at-home laptop for the extended purpose. Not a fair comparison with the Axe, that is heavily specialized and can not write your word document or browse porn.
Laptops or computers are very common in modern live situations. How long has it been you have seen a DJ without his macbook next to the turntable? Heck, my brother is even selling that as a marketing thing to actually swing around real CDs on a classic CD player instead of using the modern approach with midi turntables and traktor (unless people don't want to pay extra for this ;) ).

Would I use my home laptop and rely on it for that purpose? No. Would I use a dedicated laptop that I only use for live purposes and rely on it? Hell yes. And let's be honest here: every live situation has a moment where improvisation is needed. And the worst thing that can happen is that you have to manually select your presets at the gig.

The only thing that refrain me from doing just that is that I´m lousy in computer setup, and it wouldn´t be better if someone else did it for me either because I can´t call that guy everytime whenever any issue arises or expect him to be around every time. I´d perhaps rely on a dedicated laptop itself, but I´m not relying on myself with that computer. As said, it can be a wide range between "working" and "not working". As an inexperienced computer (tech) guy as I am, it happens from time to time that any kind of hiccups occur with my home computer. That I often do solve, but it takes alot of time finding the solution. That makes me realizing that a DAW + computer in a live situation isn´t a option because I don´t have enough experience/knowledge in computer hardware/software to feeling confident enough in dealing with any issues just before a performance.
Regarding DAW and computer, I´m feeling that I´m overwhelmed of possible parameter settings. Whereas in an dedicated hardware, there are often not that many options in how to do things. Either you´ve got an specific feature (parameter setting) or not, in one place. Whereas in a DAW/computer it might be in several places, and I don´t know IF and HOW they may interact with each other. I´m scared of that, there you go, I said it... scared is the word... :nightmare::lol

Just my 2 cents of course!

Anyway, if OP choose to go with computer. My main suggestion would be SDD. You don´t want any HDD (mechanical/vibration) issues coming along suddenly when your band are playing out loud on stage...
 
I've been using the LT-100 for a couple years now. I've used it in exactly that way, using it to send midi commands. It's incredibly simple to program and will play your synced mp3 backing as well. In fact there isn't really any programming. If you download the manual you'll see a midi record function. All you do is playback your backing with the LT midi in/out between your midi controller and AFX with the LT recording. Make all the changes you would make live from your pedal board. The next time you playback your backing it will send all those midi controls at the point you triggered them. Extremely good system. The beauty is that when you setup live you still have your controller which can take over if things go pear shaped. Download the manual and double check as I haven't used that particular function in a while, though I do use it for backings in a couple shows on a regular basis.


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