Midi

[James]

It has come to light that a couple of music related problems in the

next production I'm doing might be solved if I can run a midi lead

from the Pianist's clavinova to my FOH Position (About 30m) Questions

 

1 - Can you safely run MIDI over a 30m length without repeaters?

2 - What type cable is best suited for MIDI - It would be nice if I

could use starquad or UTP as that wouldn't cost me anything,

3 - I have a vauge recolection that there is a pin swap in MIDI (I

haven't used it properly for about 10 years.... are pins 4+5 swaped or

am I making things up??

 

Thankyou!

 

James

[charlier]

It has come to light that a couple of music related problems in the

next production I'm doing might be solved if I can run a midi lead

from the Pianist's clavinova to my FOH Position (About 30m) Questions

 

1 - Can you safely run MIDI over a 30m length without repeaters?

2 - What type cable is best suited for MIDI - It would be nice if I

could use starquad or UTP as that wouldn't cost me anything,

3 - I have a vauge recolection that there is a pin swap in MIDI (I

haven't used it properly for about 10 years.... are pins 4+5 swaped or

am I making things up??

 

Thankyou!

 

James

Hi James -

 

Yes, you can run MIDI very long distances. I recommend the section on our FAQ page which covers this subject: http://www.richmondsounddesign.com/faq.html#midilen

 

Please feel free to email me privately if you want to get more information about this or the recommended MIDI Solutions Power Adapter unit.

 

Aura Sound Design is a MIDI Solutions dealer in London.

 

Cheers,

Charlie Richmond

charlier@richmondsounddesign.com

[topper]

For long cable runs you can jump MIDI to XLR as only three of the pins are used for data transfer, the rest are for future expansion (or are used by different manufacturers for other things - double check your specs first to make sure they aren't utilised) - you can then run the whole lot down your multicore..

 

MIDI should be wired: Pin 2 - N/C (Shield/Screen only)

4 - Data

5 - Data

 

And the common jumper (note there is No Standard)

 

MIDI Din contact 4 - XLR pin 2

5 - XLR pin 3

2 - XLR pin 1

 

As for the pin swap it kinda is, because both ends are male as opposed to Male/Female so connections are pin to pin i.e. pin 4 to pin 4 and pin 5 to pin 5..

 

And cable, I would tend to use twisted pair as this tends to limit the chance of interference and - same as for any other signals - keep the runs as short as possible and away from mains cables.

 

 

Hope this has been of help to you..