Hi, everybody! In this video we're going to
look at Audio MIDI Setup (AMS) on the Mac. AMS is a utility
application that lets you configure your computer so that it understands all your connected
MIDI interfaces and MIDI devices By doing so, that enables you to access all of those
devices from within Pro Tools. So there are two basic parts to
configuring AMS: The first thing we're going to do is to set up the MIDI Studio so that
details how all the devices are connected to the computer. Then the second thing we'll do is name and set up each MIDI device individually and specify how it transmits and
receives data. The first thing were going to do it is
configured the MIDI studio. The window that you see here is the MIDI window in AMS, and you can see that this window is
already populated with a few different devices. Most of your class-compliant devices should
come up automatically when you launch AMS. If they don't for some reason you can
click the "Rescan MIDI" button there in the toolbar. If they still don't show up
you may need to go to the manufacturer's website and download drivers for that
particular device. You can see that I have a USB keyboard
connected--that's the "USB ProKeys 88." And... that particular keyboard functions
as its own midi interface, so there's really not much else that we
need to do to configure that one. You can also see that I have a
generic MIDI interface and this is where you can connect an external device
that actually has physical midi connections. So, let's take a look at how we would do
that. The first thing I'm going to do is I'm
going to click on the "Add Device" button So I'll come up here and click "Add Device." And you can see device kind of pops
up right there. Then I can configure it's MIDI inputs and outputs by drawing virtual patch cables between
the MIDI interface and the device. OK, so what I'll do is I'll take the
interface out and I'll connect that to the device input. And then I'll take the device out, and connect that to be the interface input. I just click and drag to draw these virtual
patch cords between those connections. We'll go ahead and set up another device here
just you can see it again. So I click "Add Device...." and this one I'm actually going to
connect to the physical MIDI connections on my ProKeys 88.
It's capable of acting as a MIDI interface so that I can connect in
additional device. So, again I'll take the interface out to
the device in, and then the device out back to the
interface in. And that pretty much completes the first
step of the process which is to configure the MIDI Studio setup. So, let's go ahead move on to the second
step which is actually configuring these individual devices. So for this first external device that
is attached to the MIDI interface, let's imagine that it's a typical workstation keyboard like a Yamaha Motif or something like that. So I'm going to go ahead and double-click
on that new external device, and I will give it device name like "Motif." And the manufacturer is "Yamaha." Model is "Motif." And now that I've done that I can decide
how many MIDI channels I want to this device to transmit and receive. For transmission purposes, because
raising Pro Tools as the sequencer, we may only need to transmit on one channel.
So I'll go ahead and disable these other channels. So I have one and then two through
sixteen are disabled. And then your could decide if it needs to
transmit MIDI Beat Clock or MIDI Time Code. But, I'm gonna allow this one to receive
all sixteen channels because that way I can use up to sixteen different parts
inside of the Yamaha when I play back MIDI from inside
Pro Tools. And I don't really need to change much
else. Now I could go ahead and change that icon to something that's somewhat more
representative of that particular keyboard. Maybe something like this... Now I hit "Apply" there... and I can go ahead and close that window
and you can see that that device is now set up as the "Motif." Now let's take a look at this second
device. Let's imagine that this one is just a
controller keyboard, so I'm gonna go ahead and double-click on that and I'll say "Controller." And we can leave manufacturer and model
blank--you don't have to fill those out. And because it's a controller it's not
going to receive on any MIDI channels. And again I'll probably just have it
transmit on channel one. And we can click on the icon to change into
something that looks a little bit more like a controller. Maybe this guy. "Apply." And now our entire MIDI setup is
reflected in this MIDI Studio configuration.
