Using Copperlan as a switcher for a 2 laptop setup..

[jimbobbley]

Hi there


I run a fairly intense live audio show with a lot of MIDI flying in and out of a laptop.

I'd like to run two laptops simultaneously, having all the MIDI running in and out of both in exactly the same way. It seems CopperLAN could do the inputs very easily (e.g. routing a keyboard input to two separate outputs).

However what I'd really be interested in knowing is if CopperLAN can do the equivalent of the Radial SW8 for audio, i.e. have two sets of outputs running simultaneously, but if one of them (i.e. one laptop) were to crash to switch over to the other one.

As an example, let's say a keyboard is going into a sequencer on both computers which is spitting out MIDI to two different synths:

Keyboard -> laptop 1 input
Keyboard -> laptop 2 input
Laptop 1 output -> synth 1
Laptop 2 output -> synth 1
Laptop 1 output -> synth 2
Laptop 2 output -> synth 2

Is that kind of setup possible, so that if laptop 1 suddenly explodes or something the signal from laptop 2 would be selectable, or take preference?

Sorry if I've not explained this very well. I believe MIDI Solutions do make a selector box like this but not as a standard product.

Best wishes

Jimbob

[CopperPhil]

Hi,

Technically yes. It is quite easy to implement such redundancy using CopperLan. A target can receive two MIDI streams but listen only to the messages incoming from A (filtering messages issued from B), and then switch automatically to listening messages from B if A becomes unavailable on the network.

But there is no application doing this at the moment. It can be done, but through a custom development based on the CopperLan SDK.

[jimbobbley]

Hi Phil


Thanks for the reply.

I am afraid I know next to nothing about coding and even the thought of doing it myself brings me out in a cold sweat.

Is this the kind of thing I could ask someone to develop on my behalf, do you think? Obviously for a fee..

Best wishes

Jimbob

[jimbobbley]

Or - alternatively - I wonder if it could just be possible to set up a manual switch, rather than code some kind of 'listener', so if your MIDI is going funny for some reason you can press a footswitch to send a CC message, via something like QKeys, that then switches over an input set in Copperlan?