Will this setup work ok ??
 

Hi
In the attached picture (see My Setup below) I want to make the Machine Drum the MIDI master and have Logic Pro X be the slave. I want to be able to record MIDI sequences on Logic for the Virus TI and Roland in real time and play the whole lot back at once.
Will things play in time or would there be delays and out of sync problems for the different parts.

http://icassius.tumblr.com/post/65402116566

imo at any time you are using the computer its just best to have that as the master.. its also a neater implementation.. mac> machinedrum; mac>virus; and mac> sh2

I think you should connect your Virus ti using usb to take full advantage of the integration thing, that's quite an advantage to anyone's workflow.

You can get away with using the Virus (I'm assuming you have a keyboard version there, right?) to control the SH2 through midi (nice synth btw). but would make more sense to me to connect the SH2 to the audio interface's midi so as to be able to use them at the same time and have them both play sequences from your daw and being able to tweak them while listening.

But the way I see it, you'd be out of midi channels by then and you still have your drum machine to plug-in.

Easiest way to solve that would be getting a midi interface with more channels, might even be from RME (since you own the sound card) since they have this really cool word clock that makes midi super tight (synced to host tempo without drifting!)... Not sure what exact expansion you'd need to get, but that's what I'd do if I were you!

Of course that you can always count on the midi through connection on the Virus, for example to trigger the drum machine, specially if it's a loop based one x0x kind of thing (unlike NI's Maschine or Akai Mpc where sequencing the drums is a little different, more focused on groove instead of placing stuff on a grid), you'd only really need it to start playing your patterns in sync, so that translates into a gate on/gate off message that a single midi through connection would provide.

Cheerios

better still...

you can connect your sound card through firewire if you have the connection so as to leave the usb hub from the computer free for the Virus - always heard this is the best!

also think it's better for the soundcard's performance tbo. many people may disagree, but always found firewire much more stable then usb for audio related stuff...

anyways, if you have a tower pc or mac, you can get a cheap firewire expansion pci card.