It is interesting to see a company such as Drawmer getting involved in a MIDI based product. This not only shows Drawmer broadening their horizons, but it also reflects the growing relevance of MIDI as an important part of the modern recording studio's setup.

The past 12 months have seen a rash of MIDI-compatible effects processors — Roland's SRV-2000 and SDE-2500 delay, Yamaha's REV7 and SPX-90 and Korg's SDD-2000 sampling delay to name but a few. Now Drawmer have been quick to spot the need for an all-encompassing 'central control unit', and with this new product they hope to be able to correct just about any mismatch between MIDI units, as well as making non-MIDI trigger sources compatible with MIDI drum machines etc.

The Drawmer MIDMAN is a 19" rackmounting unit which promises to end all interfacing confusion by being the interface from which all MIDI or non-MIDI based equipment is interfaced.

In addition to being able to change MIDI channels, split keyboards, generate many different types of clock pulses and trigger (from an audio source) MIDI notes on and off, the MIDMAN can record up to 32 different sequences and assign four of them to its four MIDI outputs simultaneously.

The MIDMAN has a single MIDI input, four MIDI outputs and two MIDI thru sockets. The back panel has two footswitch sockets, a trigger and an audio, an audio input, clock input/output and a stop/start socket. This makes the MIDMAN's back panel quite a crowded place.

It is quite similar in style to Drawmer's very popular noise gates and compressors, and is also similarly priced at around £395. Its front panel is divided into 10 small boxes, each with their own LED and switch, and one 'master box' with two switches, four LEDs and a three digit numeric display.

As can be seen from the photo, each of the 10 smaller boxes have four rows of settings to select. The first four boxes are duplicates of each other — the difference being that they are each individually assigned to the four MIDI outputs. From these boxes each of the MIDI outputs can be given a different MIDI input and output channel, and a split point. This is the most basic of the facilities offered by the MIDMAN; capable of turning a keyboard with a very basic MIDI spec, such as a Jupiter 6, into a full spec mother keyboard with keyboard split.

To select one of the 10 boxes, you simply press the button labelled 'scan', which will make all the bottom 10 LEDs flash alternately to indicate that you are in the scan mode. Then pressing the button in the required box will select that box, illuminating only that box's LED. The option switch in the master box will then select which of the four rows becomes live, at which point the 10 selection switches take on other tasks such as 'yes', 'no', etc. It is actually quite a straightforward and sensible means of system control considering the large number of functions the MIDMAN offers.

Also in these first four boxes is another function, called 'play'. This offers 11 different play modes (numbered 1 to 12 but number 7 doesn't do anything). These consist of different switching combinations of normal and/or split operating modes, footswitch control mode and trigger operation which can all be stored into memory.

The MIDMAN has 32 patches (divided between the four MIDI outputs) into which can be stored all parameter settings and sequences. In the sixth box are the controls for recording the sequences, and each of the 32 real time sequences can be up to 99 beats long, and have a wide variety of editing options.

A sequence can be quantised (auto corrected), mistakes can be overwritten, and velocity information can also be altered. Being able to record and play up to four sequences at once can be very useful, not only in creating interesting rhythms, etc, but also to save memory space from your main sequencer.

The seventh box along controls the play mode of the sequences. Sequences can either be played in real time or clocked via MIDI clock, audio trigger or trigger gate and it is in the last few boxes that you are given control over the various tempo/clock/triggering information. MIDI real time clock data can be switched on or off and MIDI note information can also be filtered out of the MIDI signal if all you want is just the clock information. This solves the problem of having random notes being played when running sequences and drum machines together. Also the Drawmer MIDMAN can assign different multiples of the clock rate to the four MIDI outputs, doubling the speed of one unit, or halving the speed of another. This could be used for special effect, or to compensate for system mismatches.

As well as being able to filter out note data, the MIDMAN can also filter different control data from each of the outputs. Pitch bend, After Touch, Mod Wheel, Patch Change, Control Data and System Exclusive Data can all be filtered from the outputs as required.

In addition to all these different features the Drawmer MIDMAN has quite a few other facilities under its belt. Output triggers can be sent either based on the MIDI clock rate or based on trigger pulses sent to the MIDMAN's trigger input. These can be subdivisions of one, two, three or four pulses per beat, or one pulse every one, two, three, four, six, or eight beats. The place that the trigger pulse sounds can be shifted in units of one MIDI frame by using the left and right arrows; the maximum delay being eight beats behind where the pulses should normally occur. This should be sufficient to compensate for sync code mismatches, or time code values being slightly off.

Actually, the MIDMAN is full of these very handy little subtleties — the kind of features that you don't end up using 24 hours a day, but that you wish you had at just that awkward moment when your sync box isn't in time with the drum track, and you've no way of offsetting the start point any earlier.

I still haven't covered all the MIDMAN's features. Not only has it Trigger outputs, but these can have their gate times controlled as well. Each gate period is one frame long (1/24th of a beat), and gate times of five, seven, 11, 17, 23, 47, 71 and 95 frames long can be selected — a very useful feature if you are using the MIDMAN in conjunction with a noise gate with external triggering.

This feature then will allow you to set just about any gate rates in time with the song's tempo, ranging from a fraction of a beat to one trigger for each four beats.

I actually found myself using this feature to great effect in a mix by sending gate times to a noise gate, and routing things such as long-ish chords, guitar chords, or even reverb at longer room settings through the gate. This gave some very interesting results, helping the rhythm track a lot.

The last box has controls for the Drawer's internal clock rate, switching between external or internal clocks, clock out rate and level control for either high or low voltage trigger output signals (5v or 0v).

The MIDMAN is a very versatile product that would be a very sensible investment for most contemporary studios. It is robust and well-built, as are all Drawmer products, and I am sure it could withstand the tough life of either road use or 24-hour-a-day use in recording studios.

In a studio environment, its strengths are in its ability to overcome just about any interfacing problems you could throw at it. There are countless stories of hours wasted trying to sync products of different manufacturers via the (joke) MIDI standard, which a box like this could have solved in five minutes.

On the road, the MIDMAN would be equally well suited to being an integral part of a keyboard rig — turning DX7s or JX3Ps into split master keyboards able to control racks full of sound modules.

In addition to all this, it can act as a handfull of sequencers — perhaps not the simplest sequencer I've ever come across, but it's still a very welcome addition to a sensibly-priced, easy to use, and very versatile product.

Drawmer M401 MIDMAN/MIDI Management System - RRP £395