Users manual
Welcome
Software license
Installation
About installation
System requirements
Instal. Modularing
configure MidiShare
configure a web browser
use with OMS
use with PROTOOLS
use with DirectConnect
Authorizing
About authorization
Registration
Updating
Tutorial
create bassline
create drumsline
sync bass & drums
transpose the bass
patterns & memories
Modules
Reference
Installing MidiShare

Configure MidiShare

Modularing uses MidiShare system to communicates with MIDI and other applications. During the installation process the modularing installer will put all the necessary files onto your hard disk.

(1) the MidiShare control panel
Warning: if you already be a MidiShare user, any previously installed MidiShare version should be removed from your Control Panel folder. You can do it manually or using the system Extensions Manager.

(2) a folder named "MidiShare folder" into your system folder, including:
- different drivers to drive Midi interface and communicates with OMS software.
- a folder for "Disabled" drivers.

(3) a folder named "MidiShare" into your hardisk, including:
- The "msConnect" midishare application to check connection.
- The "msDrivers" application to configure the 256 MidiShare ports with the flows of data from other pieces of software (OMS) or hardware equipment (MIDI interfaces).
- A "Driver application" folder. Same as drivers but as stand alone mac application.
- the new "INet Drivers" folder, to ensure MidiShare communication over ethernet and internet.

Setting MidiShare preferences

• From the Apple menu, select the MidiShare control panel

MshPict

MidiShare has its own real-time memory manager in which all MidiShare datas are represented as events. MidiShare allocates the memory to store these events. If you plan to transmit/receive long sysex, increase this parameters to give enough memory to MidiShare.


• Adjust the MidiShare memory size according to the number of events you need. Close all the MidiShare running applications to put the changes in effect.


• Click the Setup button to configure the MidiShare ports connections. This opens the msDrivers application located into the "MidiShare" folder on your hard disk.

 

MidiShare ports setup


About the MidiShare Drivers

MidiShare drivers are separate components.
You can dynamically launch or quit a driver while MidiShare is running, MidiShare Drivers are like any MidiShare applications. Therefore, the MidiShare drivers are provided as regular Macintosh applications or as background only Macintosh applications.

- Drivers located inside the 'MidiShare Folder' (system folder), are automatically launched at MidiShare wake up time (i.e. when the first client application opens). These drivers are background only Macintosh applications. They automatically shutdown when MidiShare go to sleep state (i.e. when the last client application quit).

Note: They can be disabled by moving them anywhere outside the "MidiShare Folder", or like in the 'Disabled' folder for convenience.

Background only drivers may be used for you regular hardware setup: MidiShare automatically launch and quit the background only drivers at wake up and sleep time when they are located at the root of the "MidiShare Folder". Driver applications may be used to temporarily activate a particular driver without changing your basic setup. It is always possible to force a running background only driver to quit using the 'quit' Apple Event.

- Drivers located in the 'Driver Applications' folder are regular Macintosh applications. You can launch and quit them at any time.

It's the user responsibility to check for the possible conflicts in sharing the physical input / output resources between the drivers. For example: using the 'msOMSDriver' with a setup including the serial ports will result in a conflict if you try to use the same ports with the 'msSerialDriver'.

Slots and port connections

Each driver is declaring input and output slots, corresponding to the supported input and output ports. For example, the Serial Driver declare 2 slots named 'Modem' and 'Printer', corresponding to the Macintosh modem and printer serial ports. The QuickTime driver declare a single output slot named 'QuickTime GM Synth'.

To send or receive from the drivers, an application should be connected to MidiShare. Routing the events stream to the slots is done using connections which operates like interapplication connections :

- a MidiShare port can be connected to one or several slots: every event sent to MidiShare on this port will generate a MIDI message on the corresponding slots.

- a slot can be connected to one or several MidiShare ports: every MIDI message received on this slot will generate incoming MidiShare events on the corresponding ports.

 

The Drivers Manager


The Drivers Manager is a MidiShare client application used to setup the connections between MidiShare ports and driver slots.

The user interface is similar to msConnect : on the left are the input slots, on the right the output slots and on the middle, a 16 X 16 matrix which represents the 256 MidiShare ports. Ports outlined in blue colour are busy ports (i.e. ports which are connected to at least one slot), the others are free ports (i.e. ports which are not connected to any slot).

The information zone dynamically indicates the following:
- when the mouse pointer is over a slot: the name of the owner driver
- when the mouse pointer is over a port: the corresponding port number

Making or breaking a connection

First click on the ports matrix to select a target port: the selected port become red and you enter into editing mode : the window is framed in red, the slots currently connected to the selected port are highlighted and you can select or deselect a slot in the output or input list. To leave the editing mode, click again on the selected port.

Information mode

Outside the editing mode, you can select a slot to see all its connections in one glance. The connected ports are then displayed in green. To change a connection, you should first return in editing mode.

 

Example 1 : using MIDI serial interface

like Opcode/Studio 3, MIDIMAN /minimacman, or equivalent. Your interface must be connected your interface as it is recommended by the manufacturer.

• Configure your MidiShare folder like this

• Launch msDrivers. Depending of your Mac, you may have one or two serial ports.

• Inside the "MidiShare Folder" check for the msSerialDriver only. The msSerial Driver State file contains the current configuration.

• Inside the Drives Manager, Modem is connected to Port 0 (modem on the Mac), printer is connected to Port 1 (Printer on the Mac) if exists.

The Macintosh Serial Ports are free until you make a connection to the Modem or Printer port. If you want to temporarily release a serial port for being used by an other application, simply remove all the connections to this port.

When you can't setup a connection to a serial port, it means that the Serial Driver can't allocate the corresponding port, probably because it is busy (typically, the Printer port can't be allocated while AppleTalk is running), or an other software like OMS is already taking it.

Example 2 : using MTP compatible mode interface

like Emagic/UNITOR8, MOTU all (except MIDIexpress which is not running with midishare), or equivalent. Your interface must be connected your interface as it is recommended by the manufacturer.

• Configure your MidiShare Folder like this

There is one Driver for each Serial Port (Modem and Printer). Each Driver support two linked MTP interface (16 input port + 16 output port). The best way to start is to run the driver and the MTP interface before sending or receiving any MIDI event. If you don't, you must ensure that both the driver and the interface are aware of the current input / output port.

You can force the driver to send the port change information using one of the following way :
- send an event on different MTP ports
- wait 1/2s without sending any events; it forces the driver to resend the current port number

You can reset the MTP interface to force the current port transmission, or transmit events from different ports.

When you launch the driver, be sure that the serial port is not busy. If it is, you will get an error message and the driver will quit (typically, the Printer port can't be allocated while AppleTalk is running).

When the driver is running, the serial port is busy until MidiShare sleep time.

Depending on the MIDI flow level, errors may occur on the serial chip at reception time. In particular, sending and receiving a large system exclusive in the same time may result in receiving errors. This is due to 68k code emulation on native PowerPC stations.

To get more information about MidiShare please go to the MidiShare Web pages