MOTU Midi Express XT Parallel

After playing around with this unit for some weeks i found out the most features by myself, poorly the manual is not available for download at MOTU's homepage.
The factory-presets are not very useful for me, since i have a complex midi-setup. But the 8 places for user-presets are a very good feature since i use it as standalone midi-patchbay/router/merger.
Good luck i am still using Win98SE so the configuration of the user-presets via the PC-Software was working well. Under Win2000 it worked aswell. Give here just a "7" because insatlling of the drivers on the PC is not "Plug and Play", but after reading the included readme files it was nu Problem.

just my favourite features:

.)can do all kind of midi-routing and processing, very useable as standalone patchbay/merger/thru-box
.)8/9 Midi in/out
.)build-in powersupply (switchable between 110 and 230 Volts)
.)19" rack-device 1HE

after changing the lithium battery inside the device everything works perfect for me.

never had some troubles. Just one tip: if you use it standalone on the gig, don't forget to take a map of your midiconnections with you ;-)

since it's the older model without usb and i got it used for free, i didn't even tried the customer-suppot when i had troubles with this unit (empty lith-battery inside wich was easy to change)

the unit i have is now 10 years old, i hope it will last another 10 years. I used some midiman thru boxes and mergers before and exchanged all of them with the MidiExpressXT. No wallwarts and everything in one. And everything is working now, not like the midiman merger2x2..

I use Windows XP and a driver release from 2003. Earlier and !!! later drivers won't work, whatever you do in BIOS settings and device manager. Strange behavior: Without changing anything, some times all 8 in/out ports are working, next time the software believes a PC-Flyer interface is connected.

I use it for sequencing and have connected all midi gear. When it works, everthing is fine. When not: try not to commit suicide.

doesn't apply

NO. Really, NO. On bad days, NOTHING will convince the thing to work. (at least, it has character)

No answer.

Would not buy it again. It is claimed that MAC software is better, so I try to sell it to a mac user.

This unit is not very workable without the software (Mac or PC). You cannot define user presets without it. And that's a bad thing. Especially for me because the software does not work on my system(s)(Win XP).

Other than that, it's just a patch bay. But it doesn't feel right. The Edirol UM-880 for example is much user friendlier.

Well...due to software problems I could not test all of its features. But it has quite a lot of them and they're okey. 8 in- and 9 outputs. I use them all. Just nothing very special.

You can switch between PC and Mac mode. Nice feature. But most users will only have one kind of these systems and as so never touch it.

The units response is okay. Timecode okay. But untestable on my PC. And that's where it most often goes wrong with these apparati.

It seems quite sturdy. Mine is a few years old but still works fine. I hope it won't ever break, because MotU is not my freind in terms of service...(see next item).

Well...they did respond to my questions concerning the fact that it's software does not function. But they could only give me some off-topic back-in-the-book answers...after 3 weeks. They did respond though...

Buy it if you need a good MIDI interface. It's comparable to Steinberg's, Midiman's and Emagic's stuff. For easy of use I'd prefer an Edirol UM-880.

This _could_ be great, if the software would work. It probably does on a different system, but I have none. As is, I'd give it a 7 overall. This goes up to an 8 (probably) if the software would work.

Try before buying, as with everything.