Ha, I wasn’t sure if you were joking so I took the polite approach.
Now piss off 
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TRS MIDI is great for connecting compact devices. Got a good handful of mini MIDI devices here. No issues. Most are MIDI A. MIDI B can go eff itself, I only reluctantly tolerate it for a few devices that I like: Polyend Tracker, 1010 Bluebox, Eowave Swarm, Faderfox PC12. The Model:Cycles does it right.
But at the end of the day, A/B shenanigans don’t keep me up at night. I just mark my MIDI B stuff and all is well. I haven’t had the need to interconnect A and B devices yet, thankfully.
And I can recommend these colour-coded cables from Befaco:
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Your day of reckoning will come.
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I’m not entirely sure of what is being said here, so apologies if I’m making an obvious comment.
There is no difference at all in the MIDI capabilities of a MIDI DIN or a MIDI TRS cable/connector, including anything associated with THRU. The differences within the MIDI TRS spec is entirely manufacturer created, and it all boils down to people deciding differently on which of the 3 wires goes to what prong in the connector. It’s very easy for anyone to adapt between DIN and various TRS specs, you just have to make the correct connections for the 3 wires on either end.
Any connector that carries 3 wires can be used, which is why TRS MIDI became a thing in the first place prior to there being a MIDI spec.
There are, however, some TRS implementations that do not conform to the spec, such as when a vendor makes a single TRS jack into multi-purpose. That’s bad ju-ju, but it works if you keep everything straight.
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For historical reasons … many TRS midi implementations existed before there was a standard spec for this connector.
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Right. I wasn’t referring at that point to the spec for the connector, I was referring to the spec for the MIDI circuits. I could have made that more clear.
I was making 2 distinctions of what was done prior to there being a standard, the first one being an understandable choice and the second one being totally wrong according to any part of the MIDI spec.
The first is that vendors, prior to the TRS connector spec, still maintained the proper MIDI spec’d circuit, they simply had to chose how to configure 2 of the 3 wires in the cable, for which there was no spec. Ultimately those who chose what became Type A were luckier than those who chose what became known as Type B.
The second was/is using TRS for MIDI and combining it with other modes like Tap Tempo or an Expression Pedal which are traditionally TRS. In that case, the vendor very likely leaves out the full MIDI Circuit, namely the opto-coupler. And then without the opto-coupler, they decide to try add bi-directional MIDI over 1 cable. This creates a lot more confusion and incompatibility. Some prominent vendors on the scene are still doing this today even though it doesn’t conform to any MIDI Standard, either the circuit or the connector. They are only getting a pass because people otherwise value the boxes more for what they do than how the MIDI connector functions.
I looked into this a lot when I was making a utility box for myself that converted between DIN, TRS Type-A, TRS Type-B, TRS Bi-directional and TRS “WTF Were you Thinking?”. I was thinking about marketing it, but then all these other similar type boxes came flooding on the market and I decided the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.
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I like them.
Especially with smaller, portable gear.
You just toss a handful of trs cable into the bag and you’re ready to go. You forgot a midi cable? General stores have trs cables.
Smaller to. Smaller sockets in the gear needed.
Bad implementations? Not the problem of trs, it’s the problem of bad product design by the manufacturers.
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Tired: MIDI over TRS
Wired: MIDI over XLR
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Yep. Not actual hate. But the tiny irritation every time adds up
5 pin midi didn’t NEED all those pins?
I feel betrayed
Two extras are for power:
DIN connector
Per the original MIDI 1.0 standard, cables terminate in a 180° five-pin DIN connector (DIN 41524). Typical applications use only three of the five conductors: a ground wire (pin 2), and a balanced pair of conductors (pins 4 and 5) that carry the MIDI signal as an electric current.[84][72]: 41 This connector configuration can only carry messages in one direction, so a second cable is necessary for two-way communication.[2]: 13 Some proprietary applications, such as phantom-powered footswitch controllers, use the spare pins for direct current (DC) power transmission.[85]
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AFAIK Midi only uses 3 pins, so a mini-XLR would make more sense (And, hopefully, provide fewer opportunities to screw up). (Or, hell, mini-DIN).
Of course, a new connector standard is always annoying, but hot damn DIN5 connectors are chunky.
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You say chunky. I say robust. After decades of tripping over, rolling over with chairs, coiling, knotting, and god knows what else to them, I’ve never had a DIN cable fail on me. I can’t reliably say the same for a 1/8” TRS cable of any decent length after even a year or two.
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Well, cables I’ve had fail (which are not many) are usually failing at the strain relief area, and most DIN MIDI cables aren’t much better than other cables at that problem.
Apart from a daily use headphone cable that had a jack failure after three years of walking to campus wrapped around a messenger bag strap, the only cables where I’ve had connectors fail have been hit with force that would deform a DIN5 connector.
Speaking of, I’ve had to temporarily repair a DIN5 with a pair of pliers, and I’ve seen a DIN5 (not mine, and far more abused) leave a pin in the port. Yikes.
Of course, any pinned connector could do that, but still - the horror.
You remind me that the metal frame on DIN connectors, while being sturdy, are not always great for gear. Especially anything one’s reaching around to plug into blind. I low-key collect SoundCanvases, and even boxes that are immaculate from the front all look like this from behind:
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Yikes - yeah, orienting a din cable without looking can be a pain, especially in a known “stiff” jack.
That type B usb port looks rough!
Roland’s fault for putting USB on a SoundCanvas. What were they thinking?!
That does seem rather out of character, is that an SC-D70? I sometimes forget they kept making them after the SC-88.
There has to be a better solution for rear mounted jacks, but damned if I know what that is.
This right here is my pet peeve since I’m so OCD about the condition of my gear. Seeing scratched up DIN midi ports on used gear is common because it’s so easy to do.
This is serious negligence beyond DIN.