Congo Jnr, QLab & MSC

[jonny_av]

In our venue we have three areas using a Congo Junior. I've now installed Mac Minis in each area and am looking to control the Congo Jnr's using MSC.

 

In one area- we already had a MOTU 828 MKIII which is connected to the Mac Mini via USB to allow more sophisticated audio. As this has MIDI in and out, I connected it to the Congo and started triggering lighting cues without issue using QLab.

 

In another area however, there is no need for any external soundcards so I purchased a run of the mill cheapo USB to MIDI lead (literally £8 from Amazon), connected the USB to the Mac Mini and the MIDI (in every possible combination) to the Congo Jnr. QLab sees the device, I can patch it, and I when I send a MIDI command using MSC the 'MIDI SEND' light flashes on the device.

 

There is however no response from the Congo. All is set up - the desk has an option to accept MSC which is ticked, all the other checks have been made, but the desk simply will not respond.

 

The only thing that is different is that QLab sees the MOTU as one MIDI patch - whereas this cheap MIDI thing comes up as two patches in QLab - I've tried using one, the other, both together... still nothing.

 

What am I doing wrong? Surely the answer can't be to just buy a more expensive USB to MIDI converter, and surely I don't need to buy a MOTU or similar to achieve this?

 

Any help greatly appreciated!

[dbuckley]

Well the first thing to do is the obvious, first heck the leads, and secondly move the not working Mini and its USB/MIDI adapter and lead to the working congo and see if that works. At the end of this you will have elinated the leads as a source of the problem, and determined if it is a congo not receiving or a mac not transmitting.

[Andrew Edwards]

Could it be a device ID issue?

 

Do the adapter and the Congo have different device IDs?

 

Does the MSC cue in Qlab have the correct ID relating to the Congo?

 

If the ID is wrong then the Congo will just ignore the MSC message.