Would have been nice to have an "all outs" routing too. In some ways more of an assignable thru box then. Its based on ports rather than channels so can't do any kind of filtering ie you can end up multiplying a lot of redundant midi messages. I've mostly used it to direct a master keyboard to other less accessible keyboards on a stand, so not sure how well it would handle actual merging from multiple sequencers for example. Nice for basic routing with intuitive no-menu front panel controls. Anyway, which one of the above do you guys recommend and why? Thanks! I didn't include the Edirol UM-880 because it's too expensive. MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV - (The only one that interfaces with the DAW. Perhaps more than I need, but I've liked my Ultralite!) MOTU MIDI Express 128 ($200 new and interfaces with DAW. JL Cooper Nexus 3 (I see these often from $40-$250 and cheaper ones often missing the AC power unit for some reason)
Digital Music Corp MX-8 (I see these often for about $100)
Yamaha MJC8 (usually go for about $100) Roland A880 (usually $150-200, have heard good things about these) Akai ME80P (haven't seen one of these on eBay in a while) Akai ME30P (see these often on eBay for $120-150) Kawai MAV-8 (a bit hard to come by - usually $150 used on eBay) The most important thing is I need something easy and hassle-free to work with since I will not be doing very complex routings, and MIDI mapping is my least favorite aspect of music production (I truly hate it).
I need at least 6 MIDI OUTs and at least 3 MIDI INs (4 is even better). So I don't need another interface to connect to my computer - although if it's able to, that's fine too (I'm on a Mac, btw). I already have a MOTU Ultralite mk3 with 1 MIDI I/O port which i can use to send and receive MIDI for my DAW to whatever MIDI patchbay I end up with. I need a MIDI patchbay to connect my hardware synths and computer to.