MCT on the Mac: I'm confused!

[einkahumor]

Hi.

I just finished putting my first Synthex kit toghether and my Megadrum seems to be working (triggers work and it sends midi). However I can't get MD and MCT to talk to each other. For example, when I click on Load all pad settings in MCT it says loading and then all pads loaded in the top right corner but nothing seems to really happen. The settings on my MD are still nowhere near the same as the ones on the screen in MCT. I'm using Mac OS X 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard) and this is a Synthex 3.2 56input Megadrum. I think I have set all the settings in MCT correctly (see screenshot) but I'm not really sure on the Bootloader section. I have tested it with Logic and Superior Drummer and it works, thanks Dmitri, Synthex and everyone, MD is awesome (but you already knew that).

My confusion is that I've seen some people talk about MCT working on a Mac and others saying it doesn't. The same goes for MMJ and Mandolane MIDI SPI. I don't really want to install these things unless I can get someone to confirm that it actually works. Can someone help?

[fuzzysnuggleduck]

I've endlessly tried to get MCT to work on a Mac. I've run it on a 32-bit Intel mac with 10.5.x and 10.6.x as well as a 64-bit Intel mac, again both Leopard and Snow Leopard. I've tried MMJ and Mandalone as well as another wrapper written by a MD forum member and nothing. I've tried different JREs as well. I've had some things work here and there but no where near well enough or consistently enough to be of any use. Even Dmitri's firmware update utility written in C using RtMIDI library doesn't work on my Mac.

Overall, my experience is that MCT just doesn't work on the Mac as is. Could be OS X related (broken MIDI SysEx?), I don't know. All I know is it's never worked properly for me.

[einkahumor]

Dang. Has anyone tried to run MCT under a Virtual macine (like Parallels or VMWare Fusion)?

I've never used that stuff but I only have Macs and I don't want to have to have to boot into Windows to use MCT as it would brutally kill my workflow.

[fuzzysnuggleduck]

Dang. Has anyone tried to run MCT under a Virtual macine (like Parallels or VMWare Fusion)?

I've never used that stuff but I only have Macs and I don't want to have to have to boot into Windows to use MCT as it would brutally kill my workflow.

Yes, I got MCT working with Windows XP in Virtual Box on my Mac but it's not that fantastic of a user experience and it messes with the USB connection to OS X when you have to switch the USB device back and forth between OS X and Virtual Box.

[davem]

For whatever reason, Java and MIDI on Mac is still horribly, horribly broken. So in theory, there's been an update in 10.6.2 which now implements the various things that need to be implemented to make MIDI work, but my experience is that MCT simply doesn't work. I wrote mjwrapper, which works great for me but apparently not others.

fuzzysnuggleduck, can you tell me exactly what versions of Mac OS X and Java you are running, whether they are 32-bit or 64-bit and your architecture? I will try and build a version for you and go from there.

[einkahumor]

I've tried mjwrapper and mmj but neither worked for me (system description is in original post + Java 6 (latest version via software update) in 64 bit). I've also been trying to get it to work using Parallels Desktop and Windows 7 but no luck so far. I guess I'll try WinXP in Parallels this weekend but like @fuzzysnuggleduck said, not being able to use MCT alongside Logic isn't really a fantastic user experience.

[davem]

Hmm, interesting. I've come up with another version of mjwrapper which I think is linked a little more sensibly. So, I am running Mac OS X 10.6.3 with Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 1, but not Update 2. In theory I don't think not having Update 2 will do much, but I've not done much testing yet. This is on both an aluminium Macbook and a Mac Pro, and both work fine with mjwrapper and the stock version of MCT.

Here is the updated library. The instructions to install are as follows:

1. If it doesn't already exist, create the folder /Library/Java/Extensions
2. Put both libmjwrapper.jnilib and mjwrapper.jar inside that folder.
3. Open the application /Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences.
4. In the "General" tab, click and drag Java SE 6 (64 bit) to the top of the list for both of the listboxes.

Let me know how you get on with that. I have no problem having MCT open and then, say, Toontrack Solo or Logic Pro in the background as well, and it works really nicely.

[davem]

Also, whilst I'm thinking about it, you need to be aware that if you're running Java Update 1 and you also have mjwrapper installed, you'll see two MegaDrum USB MIDI devices in MCT. In my experience I found that one works (mjwrapper), and the native Mac one doesn't. I will change the source so that in future releases, the name of the device has something like a (mjwrapper) suffix to tell it apart from anything else.

[einkahumor]

...you'll see two MegaDrum USB MIDI devices in MCT. In my experience I found that one works (mjwrapper), and the native Mac one doesn't...

Spot on!

It works perfectly now! Here's a screenshot of my working configuration (in case it would help anyone):

MCT-Config-Working.jpg

Thanks Dave, Elrules and all you guys, this changes everything.

[davem]

Awesome! I was beginning to lose hope