Midi from Mac to Parallels XP Partition?

B

buckaroo

Member
I'm using my Macbook Pro 10.6.4 with Parallels to run a Windows XP partition which works fine.

However I have my Sequencer/DAW and MIDI on the Mac side but would like to use the Windows XP Partition to host some VST plug ins via Xlutop Chainer (a standard PC VST host), as some are PC only

Is there a way to send MIDI from the Mac to the Windows side so both OS's act as one in order to record and make music?

So either a program, or even better something within Parallels 5.0 (which im running) that can 'bridge' between the two Os's

I do access my Keyboard and Audio device in Parallels by clicking the USB icon at the bottom, but obviously when it switches over to XP / PC its 'lost' from the Mac side (and i think i need this always on the Mac OS as this is where im sequencing from)

Thanks for any help
 
This is lame - had a big long post ready to share with everyone about brdiging audio and MIDI between mac os and parallels win vm, and the parallels forum managed to my log me out AND empty the post field before it posted....

I got enough problems with my hands to be retyping all of that so here's the skinny:

MIDI LINKUP
1) use two inter-connected midi interfaces (one connected to osx, one to win vm) to beam midi back and forth.
2) have not done this, but it should be possible to send MIDI over UDP back and forth with something like MaxMSP, which could eliminate the need for the physical setup above (the MaxMSP patch would need to be running on both osx and the vm).

AUDIO LINKUP
1) Use interconnected audio interfaces...
or 2) use the virtual audio driver Soundflower from cycling74 to bridge audio virtually. (have not done this myself as I havent had the need for it, but it should be doable...)

PARALLELS...OR WINE?
Those of you who need your PC plug-ins on your mac, you could consider Wine emulation instead. There is a windows-to-mac-vst wrapper which I've used to wrap my pc plug-ins for use in my osx host. Tricky setup, but i'm successfully running the win-only Glitch and z3ta plug-ins right inside my osx Live. Google "wacvst wrapper" or "windows to mac vst wrapper". There is a good KVR post with info on the setup from the wrapper developer.

That's all, hope this helps. Happy hacking.
 
Yes thanks for your post, but think i've given up on the PC side MIDI into Mac..

My main reason for using Parallels is for audio - I use Sound Forge on the VM side linked to my OS X DAW's to edit audio.

BUT I've had a year long support ticket which has even been elevated and PD Support, are saying that you cannot record audio into Parallels?!!?

I set up my USB Soundcard Edirol UA-25 and it all works fine on Parallels and is seen as a usb and in the audio preferences, and selected in Sound Forge on the VM but NO WAY can I get it to record audio in Parallels!!

I've even tried the standard windows wave recorder and that doesn't work either?! I've tried digital SPDIF, which isnt recognised and standard line in and nothing

Then I tried Soundflower to pass audio through programs to record on OS X which works fine and again, shows up as an audio interface in PD and on my VM Sound Forge - but nothing!!

So they have admitted defeat and said that you have to use PD6 to 'edit' audio thats recorded from the OS X side?!

Bit of a joke, but I can't be bothered to go through support again as it was painful, and have tried to use some work-arounds

Lets hope PD7 addresses some important audio issues when it arrives.
 
Ouch... sorry to hear about that year-old ticket!

I guess i got kinda sidetracked from your original post... I just wanted to throw my comments about trying to get audio DAWs talking to each other seamlessly to hopefully save the next sucker sometime trying to figure this out. In my case, I stopped at MIDI because that's all i needed (and of course I went for the laziest solution - physical midi ios!). For audio, it sounds like you've already tried the Soundflower / PD route but the soundflower driver couldnt be accessed from PD on the VM?

I'm not very familiar with SoundForge, but could you not use a mac-based editor for your detailed editing needs? I guess you're probably a creature of habit and like what you like, just like me.... otherwise I wouldn't be midi chaining two sessions together just for a MIDI arp, right? ;) And if i understand correctly your ideal editing workflow would be to play some stuff from your DAW and record it into SoundForge on the VM, edit there, then play it back and record back into your DAW?

About plug-ins.... Not familiar with the Zlutop chainer either, but have you tried the Wine emulation route? I've had success wrapping and running some PC vsts natively in my mac host (Ableton Live).
 
Just tried out audio recording myself and couldn't get it to work. Now I too am mad!!!!! (even though I don't currently need audio in/out on the vm, I should be able to if I want to). +1 for better audio support please!
 
Has this issue been resolved? If it has not, I ask that Parallels developers
please get on this...

I have a lot of audio software that I have spent a great deal of money
on that is not available on the mac. I would like to be able to use it.
Is that not the point of Parallels?

Please, please come up with some windows audio driver that allows
audio software running on the VM to access audio hardware.
 
Same Problem

I am trying to use NoteWorthy Composer and play the files on my iMac and my MacBookPro (I have two Parallels licenses). I cannot get a clean play of the MIDI files (with an XP virtual machine) on either.
The sound is choppy and has lots of clicks.
The same occurs playing MIDI files on web sites in Internet Explorer.
This is frustrating since the same VM plays them just fine using a different virtualization software product whose name begins with an F.
I really like Parallels, but this certainly seems to be a Parallels problem, not a problem with the rest of the set up. I have tried updating the tools and settings in every possible way.
 
I have been experimenting with audio applications. One things that would help
with audio output is installing ASIO4ALL. It allows you to control the buffer size you are
using for audio data. Assuming your audio applications allows you to select
an ASIO driver, it should work alot better than the regular default driver.
I tested it with Cakewalk Sonar and it works great.
 
I don't know if audio under parallels is going to perform very well. And I don't have a solution either. For midi, check out the freely available rtpMidi. I ahve used it to communicate midi back and forth between windows-vpc and osx and it works great. It would be better if Parallels provided a virtual midi port device in the VM, but many of us have aske for it for years and they ignore our requests, so try rtpMidi.
 
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