Midi Issue For Newbie With A Midisport 8x8- Help! Options

[12xu]

I'm tearing my hair out here cause I cant figure out why one of my devices won't work in my Midisport 8x8/s. It's a Cheetah rack synth module, a lot older than my other gear. Everything else is working through the Midisport just fine and, if I use my Korg Triton as a midi controller direct to the Cheetah (without incorporating the Midisport) the messages are recieved fine. BUT- if I, for example, connect the Korg to Midi In 1 and the Cheetah to Midi Out 1 on the Midisport, there's nothing! Is there some other issue I can check, beyond the patchbay configuration on my laptop and the cables (all are fine)? Anything to do with it being an older bit of kit? Any ideas?!?! ANYONE?!?!

[miklospower]

Older MIDI devices sometimes have problems with the MIDI grounding cable that is a mistake in the MIDI spec. Basically you have to physicallly modify the cable you are using. Take the midi cable and at one end (no need to do both) look at the midi cable so that the pins inside the cable head are facing you in a "smiley face" configuration, not a "frown. Then you take a pair of plyers and bend the *left most pin on the 'smile'* back and forwards until it breaks off. Don't damage the other pins. That left most pin is not used for anything, and all it does is ground your device with your computer and interface which you don't want - that is not supposed to happy, your device should ground through it's power cable automatically. Some people have mixed results with grounding problems from lost notes to devices completely not responding - like yours. Since you only change the interface, I suspect this is the problem. You should be able to fix it in a few minutes. If this is not right, you have only damaged a midi cable, and it will still be completely usable, as I said, that left pin is not used for anything in midi and all it does is ground which you don't want on any device. Actually, you could modify all your midi cables this way. I had problems with my Kurzweil K2600 constantly it was driving me nuts (with a midisport by the way) until somebody told me to modify the cable, it's been fine since. By the way this is something even the manufacturers weren't aware of until recently.

Hope this helps,
Miklos.

This post has been edited by miklospower: Sun 4 Sep 2005, 01:24

[12xu]

Thanks for your suggestion, Miklos. Unfortuately, though, it still doesn't work...! Any more ideas? Anyone?!

[joehosefat]

Next question - what MIDI channel(s) do you have the Cheetah receiving on and in what mode? Do you have an implementation chart for the Cheetah? The chart will tell you how the device responds to MIDI information (since it works plugged directly into the Korg, it's clear that it's a configuration issue). Also, you will need to specify the transmit/receive channels in the Audio MIDI Setup application in OSX for the devices in question. Have you set up the Cheetah, the MIDISport and the Korg in the AMS utility? You will need to have the In/Out's for each device configured properly in AMS. Before going further, have you gotten this far? BTW, I personally haven't ever needed to break pins out of a MIDI cable, so I'm not sure where that's coming from...

Joehosefat

[12xu]

Hi! Admitedly, this is all kind of new to me, but... I've had the Korg sending out on Midi Channel 1 and the Cheetah set to receive on the same (result: Fine when direct Korg- Cheetah; fails with Midisport inbetween). I've also tried different Midi Channels on each and tried putting the Cheetah in Omni Mode. The battered old Cheetah manual doesn't seem to go into any more detail besides "set Midi Channel to correspond to that from the controller."

As for on the Midisport, I've had the Korg Midi Out port going into the Midi In 1 port on the Midisport and the Midi Out 1 on the Midisport go to Midi In 1 on the Korg; then added a cable from MidiOut 2 on the Midisport to the Midi In port of the Cheetah. On my laptop, I've then configured Midi In 1 on the Midisport to send to Midi Out 1 (the Korg) and Midi Out 2 (the Cheetah). I've also tried the "Select All" option, whereby every Midi In should be sending to every Midi Out on the Midisport. Still nothing.

Hope I've explained this even slightly understandably- and cheers for trying!