Mackie d8b used for a controller in Cakerwalk

[Frans van den Berge]

3 wires. Wich is the same inside a midi cable.  Philips pushed an old connector because they had many in stock. Basics of midi is a serial protocol using 3 wires. 

[Frans van den Berge]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mackie-HDR-24-96-24-track-recorder-editor/401745609514?hash=item5d89e7832a:g:GDAAAOSwwFlcmN3X

 

This recorder can be connected to the D8B and give you a full blown recording system. Wich allso can interface with your daw. 

[Frans van den Berge]

This is the back of a Mackie HDR2496. It has ethernet and you can connect a mouse and a keyboard. Together with your daw it can share it's harddisk. So you can grab the audio files from it. The D8B will take full controll over the HDR2496 . It may serve you. Allso to flip the whole system if you ever decide to upgrade. 

[Frans van den Berge]

http://www.probox-controller.com/

[Frans van den Berge]

 

[msmcleod]

Bear in mind the two serial ports are not MIDI ports, and do not send/receive MIDI data. They use their own communication / handshake protocol.

You'll need something to translate the MCU MIDI protocol (or whatever protocol you opt for, e.g. CC #7 + MTC commands), and the communication protocol the D8B understands.

DocBradley's source code has some code to do this translation - I'm not sure how complete it is though, but from what I can tell it does at least get as far as the handshake and sending out/receiving fader information.

If I was to approach this, I'd use a raspberry PI 3 with 2 x USB to Serial converters, and 3 x USB MIDI cables.

The MCU protocol requires each bank of eight to have it's own MIDI IN/OUT ports, hence the 3 USB MIDI cables, and the 2 x USB to Serial converters to talk to the D8B.

Of course you could bypass the raspberry pi altogether and use serial ports on the PC, and use a MIDI loopback device. However, finding USB to Serial devices that actually work in Windows 10 might be a challenge. The StarTech stuff is usually solid, but it's pricey. Also I've found writing software that writes to the serial port is more tricky in Windows 10.

Doing low level stuff like this is a breeze on the raspberry pi.

[chuckebaby]

7 hours ago, Frans van den Berge said:

This is the back of a Mackie HDR2496. It has ethernet and you can connect a mouse and a keyboard. Together with your daw it can share it's harddisk. So you can grab the audio files from it. The D8B will take full controll over the HDR2496 . It may serve you. Allso to flip the whole system if you ever decide to upgrade. 

The d8b is very similar, has a mouse, keyboard, hard disk. how is this one different ?

[chuckebaby]

6 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Serial devices that actually work in Windows 10 might be a challenge

Im still using Windows 8.1 if that makes any difference.

[Frans van den Berge]

rs422 to usb?

[msmcleod]

I found the StarTech usb interfaces are the best for Windows:

https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Serial-Cards-Adapters/1-Port-USB-Serial-RS232-Adapter-Cable~ICUSB2321F

They're a bit more expensive than the generic USB->Serial cables you get from eBay, but (a) they work and (b) you'll get support from StarTech if there's any issues.

AFAIK they do both RS232 & RS422. I'm pretty sure the d8B is RS232, but best to check.