Hey guys, interested in which USB cables/adapters are used to externally control an A4 via a MIDI Controller USB Standard B OUT to A4 USB Standard B IN?
afaik you can’t use usb-midi devices directly into the A4 usb port. A4 can only act as a client to a USB host desktop PC/MAC that is sending/receiving midi.
You could use a raspberry pi, the arduino ADK has a midi host port, or http://www.kentonuk.com/products/items/utilities/usb-host.shtml to convert your usb-midi device into DIN.
I’d recommend the iconnectmidi 4+ … built like a tank and very configurable for all sorts of routings. Useful if you’ve several hardware synths, pc/mac, elektrons, usb-midi only controllers and ios devices. You can receive the audio digitally in your DAW from your ipad/iphone using audiobus.
It is a shame there are so few modern compact controllers that lack midi din and have midi-usb only.
I completely agree with you!
Hey boys thanks, I interpreted the text in the manual differently. What I’m after is the OT to remain master, slave the A4, MD and MnM but want MIDI Controller input in through the OT to the A4 and the MnM via Zones on a M-Audio Axiom Pro keyboard. But get a lot of cross talk that changes parameters on different machines. Any tips or setup techniques?
*update: When using MIDI Thru on OT, Axiom passes the correct Zone channel messages i.e., Channel 1 > A4 MIDI Thru > Channel 2 > MnM. Both machines play in their respective zones. However none of these machines are synced. Only when MIDI Out is used on the OT are the other devices slaved, but neither the A4 nor the MnM receive MIDI In thru the OT from the Axiom. What setting am I missing?
A MIDI Thru port only passes on the MIDI data that is received via a MIDI In port.
E.g. the MIDI Thru port on an A4 (or OT) will not pass on MIDI clock data generated by the A4 (or OT). Any generated MIDI Clock data will only appear at the MIDI Out port.
If you are trying to do this :
[Axiom] —> [A4] —> [OT]
and you want the Axiom to control both the A4 and the OT, and at the same time you want the OT synced to the A4, then you will need a MIDI Merge box
[Axiom] —> [A4] (Out + Thru) ===> [Merge] —> [OT]