Purpose:
I would like to send and receive midi notes to and from Ableton and my synths.
More:
I have a Bome Box connected to an ESI M4U eX midi interface which is connected to various synths in my studio. I would like to send midi notes from Ableton to my synths (ex: midi channel 1:1 triggers a drum machine kick, 1:2 triggers the snare etc). I would also like to be able to trigger midi notes from my hardware and have that sent to Ableton for recording. I watched this video Tutorial: Set up Bome MIDI Translator Pro as a MIDI filter for Ableton Live or other DAW - YouTube and found it didnt click for my situation. I own MIDI Translator Pro.
I have been able to set up Ableton External instruments with Bome Box and can get sound coming through and MIDI sent out. It just doesnt make sense as the MIDI channels seem to be shared throughout the synth rack even though I’m drilling into my drum machines specific MIDI channel but if I go to another MIDI channel, the same midi channels are triggering the drum machine (2:1 triggers kick, 2:2 triggers snare).
Has anyone tried this sort of back and forth midi set up with Bome? Should I have just bought a long usb cable and run the ESI M4U eX solo?
Thank you and I apologize as my imposter syndrome feels really high right now.
Hi, I haven’t used the M4U before but it appears to have different settings? Are you setting it up as a USB device? How are you connected to BomeBox? If you are connecting via MIDI DIN, then it may be in a MIDI thru mode and sending to multiple devices in which case each device needs to be receiving and responding on only it’s assigned MIDI channel(s). I would suggest that if you can, you connect the M4U via USB. If it is a class compliant device then no drivers would be required and you could address each of the M4U ports separately and then it would not matter which channel each device is on. You could simply use Remote MIDI Ports on your BomeBox to expose them over Bome Network to your computer and then on your computer set up Ableton Live tracks to address each of your ports individually.
If you need to do some advanced or dynamic MIDI routing or translations, you could add a project file from Bome MIDI Translator Pro (as long as it is not the trial version), to do that for you.
Most Drum machines or modules react only to MIDI channel 10 but this is a common convention , however not required.
In Ableton Live, you can also restrict the outputs to only a given MIDI channel on a given port. By default I think they send to all MIDI channels.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
Are you setting it up as a USB device? Yes, I’ve connected the BomeBox over POE and am using the usb port to connect the M4U.
How are you connected to BomeBox? I’m connected to the BomeBox via ethernet. BomeBox → Router → Mac over ethernet.
Correct, the M4U is class compliant and I get all midi ports but none of the usb dock on the device without an external power source to the M4U (this is fine for my needs).
I’ve included 2 images including my Remote Ports page as well as my Routes page. It looks like your dev team did a killer job on the auto detecting feature as it looks like it’s mapped everything perfectly. I feel like the answer to my issue is right in front of me.
OK, so all of the ports are exposed on your BomeBox.
To expose them over Bome Network, you will need to open the Bome Network tool on your Mac. Although I have a Windows PC, you will see something similar to this.
Click on the name of your BomeBox (Not the globe Icon and you will see something like this (on your Mac). In my case I have a 4 port MidiHub connected to my BomeBox.
Now back to your Mac, you can expose the remote ports to your Mac by clicking the desired switches on as shown here:
Now on your Mac, you should see the new ports. This is how they show on my Windows PC. They are called “Remote Direct Ports” on your Mac and will be the port names on your BomeBox prepended with your BomeBox name and a colon. Here I’m looking at the ports on my Windows PC using Bome MIDI Translator Pro.
On your Mac you can use them just like any locally connected MIDI port.
I hope this helps clear things up.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
Thanks a ton Steve, that was it! Super appreciate the help and I hope this helps others attempting to connect a midi hub to BomeBox and control their synths and drum machines with Ableton.
