It’s really quite simple.
The Kenton Spin Doctor knob controller is plugged into Kenton Control Freak B which is itself connected to Control Freak A. That has a toggle foot-switch plugged into it’s first external control voltage input, programmed to toggle a MIDI note (also mapped to a button on the controller).
The output of all these controllers connects to the Edirol FA-101 multi-channel audio and MIDI interface which plugs into the laptop (when it’s present) over Firewire. The aforementioned foot-switch/button starts/stops Ableton Live 8’s internal sequencer, which also transmits the clock back out as MIDI through the FA-101 (interface latency compensated for within Ableton).
That enters a little 2-way MIDI socket switcher. The other input is a separate MIDI clock signal sent from the X:One 92 DJ mixer. Thus, when the laptop is in a different room and I can’t be bother to use Ableton I can tap and tweak tempo and start/stop everything straight from the mixer (which channels the Edirol audio outputs, plus the outs from the SoundCraft mixers on each wall, as well as feeding the channels sends and mix 2 output back into the computer for recording/sampling/effecting).
So either Ableton or the X:One’s clock signal snakes from the window to the other side of the room and into a Roland MSQ-700 hardware sequencer (so old that it got a Sound On Sound retrospective back in 1996). I often have that as the master clock source - amazing solidity, big tempo knob and display, loud internal metronome, immediate access to the three or so features I use - so it, too, has a foot-switch for start/stopping everything without having to stretch my foot a few feet too far.
It’s strong, regenerated MIDI clock signal is then pumped into an Audio Spectrum MD 80 MIDI 2x4/1x16 switch/splitter box, powered by 12 volts to keep it’s transmissions healthy.
One of the outputs of this box feeds into a little MIDI clock to DIN Sync 24 converter to nourish the 606 and 808 (and the 202 but that’s poorly at present). The converter also puts out a pulse to clock the Korg Super Percussion, and works well despite it’s cracked case from being stepped on a few too many times.
Another one of the splitter’s outputs goes into the Tenori-on (configured to be a slave (to the rhythm)). It’s own MIDI output is then piped into a PG-300 external programmer that sends the combined stream to it’s associated Roland Alpha Juno 1 synth, allowing the TNR to sequence it. The Tenori-on’s patterns are then further propagated via the Juno’s MIDI Thru socket to the Doepfer Dark Energy synth (re-learning the channel it listens to on an ad-hoc basis). Fortunately, both the Juno and the Dark Energy ignore MIDI channel volume messages so partially muting the Tenori-on’s own internal sounds as needed whilst keeping others works perfectly.
This is all on the (mostly analogue) north wall.
Finally, yet another MD 80 output carries the master MIDI clock stream through a long cable that goes above the door frame to the south wall where the digital synths, drum machines and samplers hang out, fed by yet another powered MD 80 switch/splitter box.
Reliance on hardware/on-board sequencing results in never needing to merge or filter MIDI data and all that grief. On the rare occasion that recording of MIDI playback - mostly from the CS1x and Emacs keyboards and/or their synchronised arpeggiators- needs recording then a cable is slung manually through an additional dedicated USB MID interface into the laptop, thereby avoiding problematic MIDI loops or channel re-assignments.
Sending clock signals to all the MIDI capable effects units just ain’t worth the hassle.
Seems to work.
For now.
