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
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