Opcode Studio 4

This is an article culled from archive material, circa 1997.

The Studio 4 is a cut-down version of the flagship Studio 5. In the US, the Studio 5 is the industry standard, but UK restrictive pricing puts it out of reach of many users, leaving the Studio 4 (at the S5's US price) to fill the gap. It is, however, smaller, which is a benefit for live work.

I moved to the Studio 4 from an MTP-based setup after numerous hassles with incompatible software systems, due to the MIDI Operating System Wars. The Studio 4 integrates with OMS seamlessly, with the OMS application providing access to the S4's onboard features. Unlike the S5, which does extensive OMS routing and processing onboard, the Studio 4 leaves the routing to the Macintosh itself. This distinction is largely transparent, so long as the Macintosh is present and OMS is active. In fact, the Studio 5's approach can cause confusion if the unit is moved from one Macintosh to another.

The Studio 4 can actually do some simple onboard routing and filtering, without a computer or OMS. In addition, it has all the usual SMPTE facilities. Like the MTP, it is a two-port interface. One thing it lacks, compared to the MTP, is the ability to specify routing of incoming MIDI data to the computer ports on a cable-by-cable basis. In fact, I have no idea how MIDI applications reliably capture data intended for them, although it seems to work.

Also like the MTP, the Studio 4 (even with the latest firmware revision) is unreliable when used as a two-port device. Attempts to use one port will often render the other port unusable, with misrouted or lost data. The lack of cable-to-port filtering means that no work-round is possible. In fact, in single-port operation the Studio 4 also has problems if a lot of routing is present, although things seem more reliable than with either type of MTP.

As a single-port, multi-cable interface, the Studio 4 is easy to use, and the OMS integration and patching functionality is superb. I don't know whether there is any workable solution for multi-port applications. Welcome to the computer business.