Hi. I just rebought a Bome Box in order to test a new idea I had to connect my Rane Twelve MIDI HID Turntable to Serato and Houdini simultaneously on 2 separate laptops. I was hoping that I could plug the Rane Twelve into Bome Box and take a USB-MIDI In/Out 3 port cable (1 USB, 2 MIDI--1 in 1 out) to plug into the Serato laptop for Serato to read the Rane Twelve MIDI turntable data, and then pass the second signal over the network with the Bome Box Network Tool to the second laptop running Houdini. Technically this would work and the proof is that Serato can see the Rane Twelve sort of. Unfortunately Serato sees the turntable as a USB MIDI Device, rather than as a "Rane Twelve" and this means that since the identity "Rane Twelve" is stripped when the signal passes through the Bome Box to the Serato laptop, you cannot use the Rane Twelve to perform as the hardware is intended and designed.
So my question is: is there a way to go into the Bome Box Settings webpage and configure cable-connected MIDI signals to remain unaltered, keeping their device identity? Or will Bome Box always try to create its own identity over the MIDI signal?
First, Bome provides only MIDI input/output over the network. The name of the MIDI port will be seen on your computer as the name of the BomeBox.
As far as I know Serato DJ software looks to its control surfaces as combination MIDI, HID (mouse, keyboard) and audio. So even changing the name of the exposed MIDI port on your computer will likely not solve your issue. You can check with Serato, though if they have a MIDI only implementation of connecting a Rane MIDI Turntable controller.
Of course the identity of a USB to DIN interface will usually expose the named MIDI port based on how the manufacturer wants it to appear. For insance I have a MIO DIN to USB comverter and it is shown on my Windows system simply as "mio" no matter what is at the other end of the DIN.
Steve Caldwell Bome Q and A Moderator and Independent Bome Consultant/Specialist bome@sniz.biz
thanks for getting in touch again Steve and thanks for the useful help a few months ago as well on this same topic. that is useful to know that the USB DIN converter tags its own name to the signal identity. i will still try out the Amp MIDI Splitter box which is not made by Bome though to see if there is an off chance the connections might work.
my entire goal with this experiment has been to try to do 3D animation in Houdini which has a MIDI in and out port simultaneous to getting the corresponding DJ performance audio in Serato.
as a final point i do have a method to create animations in Houdini with the Rane Twelve turntables and Serato, it is just that it is not real time. what i do is screen record my performance and analyze the frame sequence in Houdini to extract animation channels which i use to drive the 3D objects and or characters in an animation scene.