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Issue with MIDI to USB cable

B

brianvendiola

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2011
7
0
So I recently bought a $10 MIDI to USB adapter off of Amazon and I hooked it up to my PS3 RockBand Keyboard because it has a Midi Out.

If anyone is familiar with the keyboard, when you hook up the keyboard to your computer via USB & MIDI, the four red lights (indicating player number when turned on with a console) would just light up telling you that you're connected. My RockBand keyboard however, for some reason, won't recognize that it's plugged in, and those four lights would flash (indicating that it's trying to find a connection).

I've tinkered around with Audio Midi Setup, but nothing seems to be working there.

Could it be that my USB to MIDI cable is faulty? Or do I have to install some sort of driver?

I'm trying to set up this keyboard with Logic Pro.

Also the Mac I'm using is a Late 2012 21.5 iMac, 2.9 GHz i5 with 8GB of memory.
 
bwhli

bwhli

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2012
557
210
Boston, MA
brianvendiola said:
So I recently bought a $10 MIDI to USB adapter off of Amazon and I hooked it up to my PS3 RockBand Keyboard because it has a Midi Out.

If anyone is familiar with the keyboard, when you hook up the keyboard to your computer via USB & MIDI, the four red lights (indicating player number when turned on with a console) would just light up telling you that you're connected. My RockBand keyboard however, for some reason, won't recognize that it's plugged in, and those four lights would flash (indicating that it's trying to find a connection).

I've tinkered around with Audio Midi Setup, but nothing seems to be working there.

Could it be that my USB to MIDI cable is faulty? Or do I have to install some sort of driver?

I'm trying to set up this keyboard with Logic Pro.

Also the Mac I'm using is a Late 2012 21.5 iMac, 2.9 GHz i5 with 8GB of memory.
Click to expand...

  • Does your keyboard still work with Rock Band?
  • Can you link us to the MIDI interface you purchased?
This information will help us give you a better answer.
 
B

brianvendiola

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2011
7
0
bwhli

bwhli

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2012
557
210
Boston, MA
brianvendiola said:
Yup, it still does.

Here's the link http://www.amazon.ca/USB-MIDI-Converter-Keyboard-Window/dp/B0047ANFWY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

If anything, the Audio Midi Setup shows that the MIDI USB cable is connected, it's just the RockBand keys (I assume) doesn't want to co-operate.

I also have a Yamaha PSR-300 that doesn't seem to work. There are MIDI in and out, but no switch/button to turn on MIDI. So I assume it's just plug and play.
Click to expand...

This is strange. MIDI is self-powered so you don't need to have an on switch or anything. Are there any switches on the unit at all? When I used to have one of those similar interfaces, there were switches on it that prevented it from transmitting.

Also, you are going from the MIDI OUT on keyboard into the MIDI IN on the interface correct?
 
B

brianvendiola

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2011
7
0
bwhli said:
This is strange. MIDI is self-powered so you don't need to have an on switch or anything. Are there any switches on the unit at all? When I used to have one of those similar interfaces, there were switches on it that prevented it from transmitting.

Also, you are going from the MIDI OUT on keyboard into the MIDI IN on the interface correct?
Click to expand...

No not at all. There are three lights on the unit, a red to indicate USB is plugged in, a blue MIDI light for the input signal, and a green light (in between) for an output signal. Hopefully I got that right...

In the Audio MIDI Setup, whenever I click the down arrow on the Icon for the USB/MIDI when doing the MIDI test, the green light on the interface lights up but whenever I press a key, the blue light doesn't show up, nor does the note play in Audio MIDI Setup.

The blue light however DOES flicker when I press the Playstation button on the keyboard. It flickers because the red lights on the keys are also blinking, so clearly there is some sort of signal going through. The keys are just having trouble recognizing it's plugged in.

I do have the MIDI IN part of the cable plugged in into the MIDI OUT on the keyboard. I tried MIDI OUT with the keys just to see if that did anything but no dice.

Though...just thought of this: on my Yamaha keyboard (which has both MIDI IN and OUT ports), would I have to plug in the MIDI OUT cable in to the MIDI IN on the keyboard? and the IN to the OUT on the keyboard?
 
bwhli

bwhli

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2012
557
210
Boston, MA
The only thing I can think is the receive channel and transmit channel are not the same. Since the Rock Band keyboard was originally used for the game, it's plausible that it was on a specific MIDI channel so it wouldn't interfere with the guitar, drums, etc. Do you know if the receive channel on your interface is set to receive on all channels 1-16.
 
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