USB MIDI Cable Converter PC to Music Keyboard Window Win Vista XP, Mac OS
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List Price: Our Price: $2.66 You Save: $27.33 (91%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Personal Computer See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of USB MIDI Cable Converter PC to Music Keyboard Window Win Vista XP, Mac OS
Customer Review: Pay attention to the vendor; they are not all the same product!
Summary: 5 Stars
Amazon has this generic web page for MIDI cables. It appears as if it is only for one product but is it not. It lumps a similar, but not identical, product , with the same price and shipping options but from DIFFERENT VENDORS/MANUFACTURERS. Buyer beware, they are not all the same!
Some cables work great, others are garbage, and they look similar. It all depends on the vendor. I found this merely by chance and I think it explains the extreme and polarized reviews in here. If you choose the different vendors the reviews are the same for all of them, in other words people have unknowingly been writing reviews for similar but different products in the same web page.
Amazon, how can you do this?!!
I bought the cable from HDE and it works great in both my Mac under OSX and a PC laptop under XP. No lags or anything wrong with my piano teaching program and a Yamaha keyboard. Then, I needed another cable and came back to the same page to order using "add to cart". I received one that had a different package, and although it looked similar, was not identical. When plugged in my Mac it had a horrible lag, skipped notes; basically matching various negative reviews by others. Only then I checked my order form and noticed it was from a different vendor: "Sound around", even though I thought I was ordering the same product!
Bottom line, if you come to this page, Amazon appears to select randomly the vendor assigned to the "add to cart button". To get what you want you need to select from the list of vendors in the "More buying choices" menu right below "add to cart". Notice that more than one vendor is fulfilled directly by Amazon and offers the same price, free super saver, etc. I will be promptly returning the one from Sound Around, and already ordered from HDE. The cable that looks like this is the one that worked for me (I have no affiliation!): USB MIDI Cable Converter PC to Music Keyboard Window Win Vista XP, Mac OS. Hope this helps someone.
Customer Review: MIDI could not be easier.
Summary: 5 Stars
I use both XP and Windows 7 machines running Sonar 6 and 8, neither of which had any problems with plug and play or latency issues.
A few tips:
1. Latency: After installed, in Sonar (I'm sure most DAWs have similar settings), go to Options|Audio|General and adjust the Mixing Latency as far to the left as possible toward 'Fast' - 10 milliseconds is probably an average that won't be that distinguishable in terms of playability. If your system is older, you may not be able to go as far, but may find a happy medium. If you experience either no sound or a steady clicking noise from your software plug-in, you'll have to move it more toward the 'Safe' setting. Don't blame the software if you're running antiquated hardware. Anything less than a dual core CPU and you're skating on thin ice, from my experiences.
2. Use the same USB port each time and the device will not be forced to reinstall. I purchased two of these and they are recognized as two separate MIDI USB ports in Sonar.
3. The only aspect which may cause confusion is that the connector labeled 'OUT' must be plugged into the device's "MIDI IN" and the one labeled 'IN' must plug into the device's "MIDI OUT", as it is indicating where it is coming from, not where it is intended to go.
4. If you want to directly control your stand alone software instrument, even the best of sound cards may have latency issues. If this is the case, download and install ASIO4ALL at asio4all.com (free). Select it as the asio device in your software setup and you will have excellent results. I've tried it on XP and 7 with no problems at all.
Conclusion: For under $6, this does what ones priced as much as 8 times higher are supposed to do. There were no issues regarding compatibility with stand alone instrument software or professional sequencer software (Sonar 6 and 8) running on both Windows XP 32 bit or Windows 7 64 bit. Buy it!
Customer Review: Turned an old Casio into a serious music making machine.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read a few reviews stating that this product has a slow buffer, meaning that from the time you press a key on your Midi device, it takes a while to register on your synthesizer. That was far from the case on my purchase. I believe that the "buffer" is purely based on your system specifications. I'm running a 2.2Ghz Dual core processor, 2 gigs of ram, and a Nvidia Geforce 8600GTS running MIDI through Fruity Loops XXL Producer Edition and the moment I press a key on my keyboard, I receive the signal immediately on my computer. So overall, this product works great - ESPECIALLY for the price. When I originally got my keyboard about 7 or more years ago, a MIDI Cable cost well over 100. I got mine for 6 dollars. And now I see you can get them for 3 dollars.
The only complaints I have about this product what-so-ever are mostly aesthetic. I would have preferred a plain looking cable, but this one is shimmery/sparkly. It almost looks like a childs jump rope haha. But of course, looks weren't the primary reason for this purchase.
The only other complaint I have about this product, is that whenever you play a note on your MIDI device, you get a flashing blue light signaling that it is receiving the notes. I'm glad to see the product is working, but if you have it facing you it can get quite distracting. Especially in the dark. I usually just turn mine around to avoid seeing this blue blink.
So, overall I highly suggest you give this product a try if you are interested in creating music with a MIDI interface. Oh, and as mentioned in previous reviews - you must connect your MIDI OUT into the MIDI IN section. I have no idea why it's this way. No, that's not product specific either - that's how it is for all MIDI Interfaces. Confusing and pointless if you ask me.
Customer Review: Great deal, here are Things you should know...
Summary: 5 Stars
Ordered two, one for me, one for my daughter.
Here are some things I discovered:
Fast shipping (like 3 days)
Product was recognized when plugged in and install drivers just fine.
Quality seems decent. (overall cable length may be short for some situations)
1) Logitech webcam drivers (for older webcam) prevented applications (like AnvilStudio or midi-ox)
from seeing any midi input devices (even though the device manager showed the "USB Audio device").
Uninstalling logitech webcam driver and removing/re-inserting the USB midi cable allowed my midi keyboard
controller to appear to the applications just fine. This topic did show up on google for other USB midi cables
like M-Audio and others, so it appears to be logitech's fault. This took me a few hours dinking around to turn up the root problem and fix. (No problem occurred on second PC which doesn't have alot of old junk drivers)
2) Latency. Microsoft General Midi Wave synthesis has an appreciable lag, apparently due to microsoft's
implementation through the motherboard built-in sound (Intel 915 motherboard w/ Intel HD sound).
I also had a SB Live installed and directing applications to use SB Synth removed all noticeable latency.
I assume directing playback through external midi devices would show no significant latency.
Applications tried: Sibelius, AnvilStudio, midi-ox. No problems.
Gotta Love Love Love that price!!
Customer Review: Just plug and play
Summary: 5 Stars
I had no a problem at all. Except according to instruction I had to plug the cable plug marked "In" to MIDI port marked "Out" and it did not work that way. So I plugged cable's "Out" to MIDI's "Out" and it worked perfectly. Actually it is not a big deal for me as long as it works. It worked with Casio CTK-481 and eMedia MIDI keyboard. No additional drivers was necessary. I just plugged and played. Operation system Windows XP Pro, Music editor: "Kinetic" CakeWalk product. I set in "Audio options" "Latency" as 20 mS. And I did not have any delay AT ALL! HALLELUJAH !
I had (since 2004) USB - MIDI cable made by "M AUDIO" and that one had a big latency until somehow it stopped work (died like old horse or so). But this USB MIDI Cable (unfortunately I do not know the brand name) is work flawlessly.
Earlier I had MIDI/Game-port to Five-pin DIN connector cable. So I had to find and install any controller (sound card or modem) which had a MIDI port because new motherboard mostly do not have one and because it was only the way to avoid big latency or distortion when you trying to find the balance between them.
Finally I can play through USB without any delay.
My guess is only that it probably does not work with some music software such as A73 Piano station even if it recognized in MIDI options or Energy XT 2.5 at least for demo versions. But It does work with CakeWalk "Kinetic" and Acoustica Mixcraft 4.
I highly recommend this cable!