How do I run a 50 foot MIDI connection?

[Chris]

I recently bought a Yamaha C7 grand piano with Diskclavier that I need to connect to Protools located 50 feet away. Can I buy Miid cables that long that are reliable? Is there another way? For explanation....a Diskclavier is both a synth, sequencer and a small mixer mounted on a real acoustic piano with solenoids on every key and pedal. I will run several mike cords from the piano as well as a midi connection both to and from it. I will also need stereo audio from the synth section....by the way there is a special 30 meg piano sample from their biggest concert grand the CFIII which sounds real good.
I need to find out about long midi transmission first....then it would be nice if I could get a cable bundle for convenience.

Christopher Kimball
C.K.’s Musical Workshop
4090 W. Eaglerock Dr.
Wenatchee, WA 98801
509-667-0648
Fax: 509-665-8298
Email: [email protected]

[PTLance]

For a 50' run all you need is the cable. It will work fine.

[Lee Blaske]

50' is probably doable, especially if you use really high quality cable. You're not going to be running an enormous amount of data down that cable.

I have a Yamaha C7 fitted with a Gulbranson MIDI unit that requires close to 100' of cable to get back to my interfaces, and I'm using a Lone Wolf extension system which converts MIDI to an optical cable run and then back to MIDI. It was quite expensive, and I don't think that Lone Wolf is in that business any more (although there must be other companies making such a product).

Another possibility would be if you're using multiple interfaces like the Emagic AMT8. The additional interfaces are connected with serial cable, and that can run for some distance. Perhaps you could locate an interface closer to the piano if the 50' cable run proved to be problematic.

Still, you should try the 50' run first. At its best, you're never going to get razor sharp timing with a Disklavier (because of the escapement delays), so you're always going to be sliding things around a bit.

Lee Blaske

[Avid]

http://www.jlcooper.com/pages/mla.html

[JimWest]

Anatek used to make a "MIDI to XLR Line Driver," (called, I think, the MIDIMATCH system) mentioned in these old URLs.

http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Dige....07.22.07.html

http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/ar/a/anat/midimatch.html

How do you find Anatek products these days? I don't know, but here are some clues:

http://www.synrise.de/docs/types/a/anatek.htm

Google English translation:
http://translate.google.com/translat.../anatek.htm&pr

http://www.synthony.com/news1997.html (Search for anatek on the page.)

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/it05878e.html

Good luck,
Jim West
Digi Engineering

[plenky]

i am using 60 feet self made midi cables.
the problem is the resistance that occurs in small diameterwires over the long run.
i have sucessfully cut off the connectors of a standard midicable and inserted standard mic-cables inbetween.

you have to try to find out, but it works perfectly for me, as does the extension for the serial mac-midi interface connection.