how to use 2 AL-22 to connect midi devices on long distance

[ludwig]

hi I just bought 2 alyseum AL-22,.
i need it to send midi informations on a long distance.
i have the band on stage using midi controlers and the computers backstage running ableton live.
we dont want the computers on stage... so i got 2 AL-22 units linked with a Cat6 RJ45 cable.
like on the pic below.
i thought i would be plug and play ,but i cant get it to work as a simple virtual cable. i m not an expert,,
but i need to have it work asap,, the first show is in a few days,,, i didnt have much time to do tests,,

what do i need to do to use the al-22 as a simple virtual midi cable ?

on the first al-22 one midi controler on the midi in 1 and on the second al-22 ableton pluged on midi out 1 on the al-22,,,

do i really need to use the copperlan manager software ? the 2 al-22 units are connected together via ethernet cable.
then pc and controler are plugged to al-22 via midi cables...



can you please help asap ??

thank you
best regards
Ludwig

[CopperPhil]

Hi Ludwig,

AL-22 are located on the same network, perfect. but you have to patch MIDI... this part of the job can't be "plug&play" since the material can't predict your needs

just plug a PC or a Mac on the same network (you need an Ethernet switch for this operation, the switch can be removed - letting the two AL-22 alone on the network - once the patching is done), and use the CopperLan Manager's "Connect" tab to bind virtual MIDI cable between the first AL-22 port 1 and the second AL-22 port 1.

you can rename the AL-22 to identify them surely on the network, but if you don't have time to familiarize with CopperLan, I suggest you do cross connection between the two AL-22 ( do you see what I mean?)

However, and especially if you don't have a switch, you can do the job with only one Al-22. When you install CopperLan on a PC or a Mac, it creates a set of virtual MIDI ports. So you can get the AL-22 port 1 connected directly to the computer running Ableton. Just run the CopperLan Manager, go to Connect tab, create a virtual MIDI cable between from AL-22 port 1 and select the target from the MIDI device ( should be stamped with the computer's name ) - virtual MIDI 1. and finally, configure Ableton to use this CopperLan VMIDI 1 port as input. it should be done really easy!

don't hesitate to post here if you need more assistance, I'll keep watching email alerts.

/Phil

[CopperPhil]

just forgot a detail: I'm not sure about this, but I think that you have to perform a long click on the AL-22 button to memorize the patching... just take a short look at the AL-22 user's manual.

It's also possible to store MIDI patching from the CopperLan Manager, using the "snapshot" tab. The camera button on the right takes a snapshot of the network. then you can recall it by clicking on the arrow from the snapshot item.

/Phil

[CopperPhil]

You can also watch this short video to help understanding how to handle MIDI connections over the CopperLan network:

http://youtu.be/kMmsS3TMtHM

Hope this helps

/Phil