Hello .Purchased an external device Pinnacle Usb710.To work port mLan from Yamaha motif es in Fire Wire .Cubase 5 did not see the port MLan .Maybe someone knows what to do next ?

Hi,

That is a USB video capture device. You’re going to need a proper FireWire controller instead. Are you working on a laptop or a desktop computer, and does it have FireWire ports built-in?

- H -

Henry, thanks for the answers!
I have a laptop with no Fire Wire ports. This video capture device is my last hope.

Well, I’m afraid the Pinnacle unit is designed for video and file transfers, and is not going to work well for low-latency multichannel audio purposes, if at all. Does your laptop have a PCMCIA or ExpressCard expansion slot on its side?

- H -

I don’t have these ports on my laptop, relatively not that old.
What should I see in mLan? Two audio tracks +16 midi tracks ? And what programme should I use to open it -Cubase ?

Hi again,

It isn’t clear to me that you have installed the mLAN drivers and tools yet, but that would normally be the first step. The Pinnacle unit’s DV port would then have to be detected by the mLAN driver as a FireWire controller (it probably won’t because the port sits behind a USB interface). Only then would the system be ready for you to connect the FireWire cables and configure your mLAN setup.

With a proper FireWire controller/port, once the mLAN driver and software tools were installed and set up correctly on your computer (and your Motif ES/mLAN16E properly configured and successfully connected), the mLAN input/output channels would be visible in e.g. Cubase’s Device Setup as ASIO mLAN inputs/outputs. How many inputs/outputs you saw there would depend on your actual mLAN Auto Connector or mLAN Graphic Patchbay settings, since this is user configurable, but up to 16 audio channels in (Motif->PC) and 8 channels out (PC->Motif), in addition to four MIDI ports in/out.

Before you continue, let’s be clear again about the fact that mLAN was abandoned a decade-and-a-half ago. It was built around computer technology that is now outdated, and the original mLAN driver is not going to work on a modern operating system. There are modified versions of it that can, but you’ll need a computer with compatible FireWire hardware before even attempting this.

mLAN was not exactly known for being user friendly to begin with. If you’re still serious about it, I would recommend that you start by reading the available documentation, in order to learn how the system is supposed to work. Even if your computer is not running Windows XP or Vista, which are the OS’es referenced in Yamaha’s mLAN Driver/mLAN Tools Installation Guide (2004), and Motifator’s mLAN16E and Motif ES and mLAN System Setup Power User Guides, those documents should give you a good overview.

The guys who modified the old mLAN driver also wrote their own setup guide and made this video, walking you through the installation on Windows 10 x64. Take notice that this solution requires Windows to run in Test Mode permanently, which may not always be desirable. Also visit Happy Harry’s website or Godlike Productions’ mLAN section for more background info. There were active user forums dedicated to mLAN technology some years ago, but these are now long gone. You may be able to find some info in the Yamaha 01X FaceBook group.

- H -