Motu Tells Customer To Stick Serial Cable Up..., ...well, not into a g4Port. Options

[Levon River]

Just got word that MOTU is abandoning all MOTU serial port MIDI hardware owners as far as OS X goes. As far as MOTU is concerned, if you own a MOTU serial interface MIDI device, you can take your serial cable and shove it up...well, into a PC, maybe?

Got this from a friend who is stuck with a $400.00 paperweight with a pretty blue unicorn logo on it, currently doing battle with MOTU. The unit works just *fine* under OS 9.x, so it ain't the serial card, and it ain't the hardware. MOTU is just abandoning all support for their entire serial line apparently, at least as far as Mac OS X. I'll try to get more details as the saga drags on.

Pathetic.

[Synthetic]

that is bad to hear but then again... I can understand MOTU's view though too. The amount of users who would be running OSX and using a serial bus Apple is probably about 5% or less of their customers. The time and amount of money spent to develop new drivers and such probably wasn't worth it for them.

Another instance that sometimes its just better to upgrade the whole computer rather than just the CPU... as fast as technology moves... its just too hard to hold on to older hardware and make it work with newer software and peripherials.

[Levon River]

It has nothing to do with the age of the computer.

There are several inexpensive serial port cards for the newer Macs, like Griffin Technology's g4Port, which plugs into the modem slot. My friend has an 867 G4 with a g4Port. That's the point: people who have invested in MOTU's line of serial MIDI devices (which is ALL they sold up until, I believe, just last year--maybe in 2000 is when their first USB device came out) are all being thrown to the dogs.

You can be as understanding as you want to be. Personally, I consider it absolutely criminal to bank people's money for a relatively high-end product and then willfully render it obsolete. You'll notice (if you go an look) that they don't get around to mentioning this anywhere on their website. They must be really proud of it themselves.

[Synthetic]

you are right... its not the best business practice for MOTU but my point being... one should really look at the way technology is moving and move forward with it... I would never had considered buying anything with serial port past the year 1998 when USB started showing up everywhere and replacing serial ports.

and yes there are many serial adaptors for newer computers but most of them don't even support more than 75% of existing serial devices. I tried one back in 1999 to make old epson printer work... it wasn't compatible and thus decided that it was easier just to get new USB epson printer for a little more money than serial adapter.

I realize this isn't going to help your situation at all... but I am just trying to explain that sometimes the buyer needs to consider more than brand name and price when making purchases in a fast moving area such as computer technology. Music technology is always a year or so behind the newest computer technology so its not always easy to do but worth it in the end.

[gdoubleyou]

I also frequent the Opcode users group at Topica.

Doug Wyatt the coder for OMS, and current Apple employee working on core midi, and core audio.

On one of his posts stated that OSX does not support serial port midi.

That's straight from the horse's mouth.

[Levon River]

So, gdoubleyou, would you ask the horse's mouth, or whatever, what the thing called "AppleMIDISerialDriver" is in the System folder of OS X 10.2?

To help him find it (and he can use both hands, if necessary), it's in the following path:

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleMIDISerialDriver.plugin/Contents/MacOS/

It may provide the phases of the moon in the dock. It may treat acne. And it may stack BBs. But perhaps the guru who gave us OMS--one of the truly great inventions of the 20th century, second only to the solar-powered flashlight--could tell us what it *actually* does, and why it has such a cute name.

TIA

[Synthetik]

I guess the main thing is that OSX will not run properly on anything older then a blue and white, so the market for serial interfaces is pretty much dead.

I still use a serial time piece on an old Performa 6115CD, this computer runs my libarian programs and is a big metrenome sending out MTC. I went out and got a usb Timepiece for my G4,

This whole thing really makes my system tight.

[gdoubleyou]

Don't know what's in the 10.2 folder, but I do know that the apps I own,(Cubase, DP) will REQUIRE a USB
midi interface for OSX.

Do a search on the Opcode group at Topica, the topic has come up several times.

[gdoubleyou]

I also found this statement from an emagic emplyee.

G-Dub

On Mac OS X, every MIDI interface needs a MIDI driver, as all
applications access MIDI interfaces via CoreMIDI, a part of OS X.
In your case, you would need a driver from MotU. As Mac OS X does not
support serial ports (only modems), writing such a driver is
currently not possible.
--

Beste Gruesse - best regards,
Michael Haydn
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dipl.-Inform. Univ. Michael Haydn mhaydn@e...
SoundDiver Group Executive http://www.emagic.de/
Logic Developer (Logic Control integration)
Emagic Soft- & Hardware GmbH - Germany Phone: +49 4101 495 0
Halstenbeker Weg 96, 25462 Rellingen Fax : +49 4101 495 199

[Seekir]

I'm a relatively new G4 owner/828/DP3 user who removed the internal modem and installed a serial G4port after reading many posts re. the bugs USB MIDI interfaces had. I've found that my MACMAN serial MIDI interface works with the G4 (on 0S 9) without a hitch, and suspect that I'm not unique. I'm dissapointed to hear that I'll probably have to buy some new stuff if the day that OSX actually becomes useful for recording with my apps. ever arrives.