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Matrix Magic | |
Article from Sound On Sound, March 1986 |
Ian Gilby reviews a truly ingenious programmable patchbay that takes all the hard workout of MIDI equipment routing in the studio - the Sycologic M16 MIDI Matrix.
Despite the simplicity of the MIDI interface, connecting a studio full of MIDI-equipped instruments and effects is no mean feat. Ian Gilby believes the task will be considerably eased however using this brand new MIDI 'patchbay' - the Sycologic M16 Digital MIDI Matrix.
The convention of routing your MIDI equipment in a chain, with one Master instrument talking while several Slave instruments listen, seems simple enough but presents several problems: many machines do not have a MIDI Thru socket and therefore cannot be included in the chain, except at the end; chaining many instruments together can lead to time delays due to the serial nature of the interface and worst of all, the format is too rigid, you may wish to play from a variety of different MIDI sources requiring multiple swapping of leads each time to redefine who's the Master.
An obvious solution to these problems would be to have some form of MIDI patchbay, allowing all your MIDI machines to be permanently connected and switched around at will, just like audio. Indeed, over the last year several such devices have appeared, including the Sycologic MI4 and Quark MIDI-Link's 999 and 448 (reviewed last month).
However, this is not the end of the story as MIDI data, being digital, is not quite as simple to manipulate as audio. For example, none of the devices mentioned can prevent the dreaded 'sustaining note' phenomenon which occurs if you switch between two instruments and in doing so separate a MIDI 'Note On' command from its corresponding 'Note Off'. The only solution may be to power down the offending instrument - not recommended in a live situation!
Sycologic have obviously been listening to the requests of their customers as they have just released their 'second generation' matrix, a programmable 16 by 16-way unit, called the M16 Digital MIDI Matrix. SOUND ON SOUND managed to obtain an exclusive preview of this device before its launch at this year's Frankfurt Music Fair.
The first thing to notice about the M16 is that it comes in two pieces. This is not due to bad construction, but a sensible decision to separate the control section from the burden of the 2U rack unit with its bulky MIDI cables and power supply. A single cable, around 5 metres long with locking 'D' type connectors, connects the two boxes. Thus you can place the remote within easy reach of your keyboards while the 19" rack unit sits with effects or synthesizer expander modules.
Situated in the remote unit is a 40x2 character LCD, for matrix display, a numeric keypad and buttons marked: Source, Destination, Inc, Dec, Store, Function and Enter. On the back of the case is a socket for connection to the rack unit and a hole through which a trimmer for LCD contrast may be accessed.
The rack unit has a sparse front panel with an LED above the power switch, for obvious reasons, and LEDs to indicate when MIDI is present at the input sockets. The rear panel on the other hand is crammed with sockets. Power is applied via an IEC socket, which can be set for 240V or 120V operation simply by turning the fuseholder. Above this resides a 40-way IDC connector, labelled 'Expansion'. Next along are the 32 MIDI sockets, 16 along the top for Input and 16 underneath for Output. Last, but not least, is the locking 'D' type socket for connection to the remote.
With a total of 16 MIDI Inputs and 16 MIDI Outputs you would imagine that every MIDI instrument you would ever want to own could be connected to the M16, until you consider accommodating machines such as Yamaha's QX1 with eight outputs and TX816 with eight inputs.
Should you wish to continue the overkill, however, you can apparently connect one or two M16X Expander modules to the 'Expansion' socket, allowing you to control up to 16, 32 or 48 Destinations!
It's all very well having lots of Inputs and Outputs but that shouldn't cause you to waste valuable studio time setting up patches or tracing what goes where. So how easy is it to operate the M16?
The Matrix Configuration, or 'patch' if you're not into jargon, is displayed as 16 locations in the LCD. Each location, marked on the panel, represents a Destination while the number displayed at that location represents the Source connected. Sources range from 1 to 16, or 'off' which is displayed as two dashes.
To edit the current patch, press Source followed by the required Destination number. The current matrix point, which is displayed by a flashing cursor, can then be assigned using Set. Let's say we started with a blank patch and want to connect Source 2, a DX7, to Destination 4, an Emulator.
S: and D: obviously represent Source and Destination but notice that the names of the instruments are also displayed. This is an invaluable feature of the M16. Every time you refer to a Source or Destination by its number, an eight character alphanumeric 'label' is displayed with it. These labels can be assigned, just like naming programs on a DX7, when you first plug in the machines. So, if you have trouble remembering which Source is the Kurzweil you can simply view the labels using Inc and Dec, which repeat when held down, until you find it!
Editing a patch is simplicity itself, once you get used to the function of each button. I found that I kept pressing Enter instead of Set to assign a matrix point. However, the display always shows exactly what's going on so it's difficult to get lost.
Sources and Destinations can be set until the required patch has been constructed. It is then just a case of pressing Store followed by Enter to commit the patch to memory.
Pressing Enter takes us into Patch mode which allows any one of the 32 available patches to be recalled from memory.
Function 3 allows the user to assign a MIDI Program Change to each Destination. Indeed a different set of Program Changes can be stored for each of the 32 Matrix Patches. Each set of Program Changes will be sent to the relevant Destinations by the M16 when the matrix patch is changed.
This may not sound that exciting on first reading, but it allows you to configure your studio or stage MIDI routing and select all of the Programs on the instruments connected in less than a second, from one matrix selection! The selection can be done from the M16 remote unit or via a MIDI Program Change received at the monitored Source.
Normally, when you have all your machines in a chain and you send a Program Change from the Master, all the Slaves will follow and select the same Program. To create a particular sound you therefore have to shuffle around, or duplicate, all the Slave Programs so that the one Program Change selects the desired sound or effect. Using the M16 allows you to receive the same Program Change from the Master but send out a different pre-assigned Program Change to each of the Slaves connected. A very valuable function which can save hours of messing around.
The last function on the menu is called the MIDI Diagnostic Mode but is actually a record of the last 12 bytes of MIDI data received from the monitored Source, and displayed in Hex format. This was probably more use to the designers than it would be to most users, but if you're interested in the technicalities of MIDI it does allow you to look at the data being sent from each machine, perhaps to check MIDI Control Change compatibility or the presence of 'Active Sensing' bytes.
Having the remote unit separated from the jungle of MIDI cables sprouting from the back of the rack allows you to put routing control where it should be, next to the music making. In addition, the 'user-friendly' readout on the Sycologic M16, with its ability to display whatever machines are connected, by name, is of enormous benefit.
At first the unit appeared to be a fairly straightforward patchbay, but the ability to select the matrix patch and all of the voice programs on the Slave instruments from one single MIDI Program Change sent by the Master, added a surprising creative edge.
With a price tag of £599 before VAT, the M16 is not particularly cheap but it has obviously been designed for use in a large studio or on stage. In this environment I'm sure it would quickly become invaluable.
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