PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Advice / opinions regarding MIDI bluetooth or wireless ?

Hi all,

I'm playing around with my studio setup, and find the MIDI cables from my keyboard or guitar controllers a hassle. I'd like to jump into wireless MIDI.

Has anyone done this and have some advice / opinion / product suggestions. Does the wireless MIDI work only over bluetooth - or can it work wirelessly through my router ?

TIA

Hi Joe,

This was a very interesting question. I did a little research and apparently sending MIDI over a wireless router is available using MIDI 2.0 but is a very new concept. The article below explains it better than in the other sites I looked. As of today the best I came up with is either Bluetooth, there are a lot of adapters available, or USB/MIDI cables. Maybe others have experience with this and will prove me wrong as I have no experience with wireless MIDI.

https://www.gearnews.com/network-midi-2-0/

Note: one thing to consider is the cost of going wireless. I know that in my case it would get expensive. Also would there be any cross talk between units? I have no idea.

Keep an eye on latency. There are delays just over bluetooth/WiFi, plus any additional delay in the dongles.
AFAICS they shouldn't be huge, but would add up if multiple hops are involved.

I did discover that my old tablet couldn't properly handle audio and MIDI at the same time with either bluetooth or WiFi involved. There were significant delays and breaks. More recent tablets may be better ... I haven't tried lately.

Checkout company CME. They have several solutions.
https://www.cme-pro.com/

Thanks for the feedback so far. Gemini actually recommended CME, and I think they have the most favorable reviews on amazon (assuming they're not fake).

I'm not thinking of a complicated rig, just a single instrument to PC...also for me it's just a hobby in my bedroom...I may audition one from Aliexpress for fun.

Joe, I have done some experiments with Bluetooth and the equipment now seems to have no problem with latency, unlike several years ago when I first tried. The two problems you could run into are range (around 30 feet, although I keep seeing boasts of up to 100), and competition for the frequency by other Bluetooth devices. A minor concern continues to be somebody turning on a microwave oven nearby, if that's a possibility.

+1

Its been like that for years.

It's also competing for bandwidth with WiFi on the 2.4GHz band. There is quite a bit of bandwidth available, but...

Range is particularly tricky as there are several BlueTooth standards and it's often not clear which standards any particular devices are using. I would trust Matt's "30ft" far more than a claim by pretty much any vendor ... they have no real choice but to be "optimistic" about range, because everyone else does the same. Line of sight between devices is almost always best if you can get it.

It actually occurred to me that the 2 keyboards I use also have USB ports for connection to my computer. I suppose I could go wireless with these instead of the MIDI ports.

I have a Roland GI-20 guitar synth which needs both the USB (out) and the 13 pin MIDI input - but it seems there are no 13-pin wireless connectors. It well may be that trying one of the new computer-processing (no hex pickup) MIDI guitar synths would be fine for convenience at the expense of some latency.

I’m using the CME Widi USB from Ableton Move to my iPad. I don’t know your experience Rustyspoon but there is absolutely no perceived latency for me.

I have their usb widi, I think 1st generation for my CME air kb. Works great.

Now that we're on the wireless topic - how about guitar wireless systems ? Anybody using these ?

I'm sure the CME stuff is good but I don't see (at a swift glance) any audio to MIDI solutions?? (e.g., like the 1/4 inch guitar jack to MIDI). Even if CME did have such a gizmo for guitar you still need (or want), as I'm sure you know, a hexaphonic pickup solution so that each string has its own MIDI channel. Enter Fishman Triple Play

Now, Fishman Triple Play (the wireless version, not the Express version with the express you are still "wired," via a USB cable, to the computer) only solves your wanting a wireless MIDI guitar solution. It obviously will not solve your other AUDIO to MIDI needs. The CME stuff does solve your other MIDI wireless desires for all the gear hat has a 5-pin DIN MIDI connection.

BTW - The lack of individual MIDI string separation (i.e., each string on its own channel) is the only real drawback for Jam Origins MIDI Guitar 2 -which I own and use). However, I HIGHLY recommend MG2 to anyone as a cheap way to get into MIDI guitar ($150 but they do have a free trial). Note, MG2 is NOT a wireless solution like the Fishman Triple Play , and wireless is the topic - so sorry for side track about MG2. However MG2 can BE "wireless" if you already have a wireless setup from guitar to computer audio in.

Truth in advertising the Fishman solution isn't exactly cheap at $430, but not as expensive as my first MIDI guitar solution back in '89 a Roland GR-50 ($2K+) that I just got rid of it two years ago. I was downsizing gear for my blessed wife in case of ... well "you know." But I kept my GI-20 for the now only one, down from three, Roland-ready Strats I have. I'm not a Fishman shill but I do like the Fishman Triple Play. The FTP tracking and latency are excellent and for any FTP puristis, in my experience, my MG2 tracking and latency are on PAR with the FTP. Additionally, MG2 is also polyphonic just like the FTP. Too bad an algorithm for the MG2 (soon to MG3 - I hope) can't be obtained to allow MG2 to detect each string individually - of course, such an algorithm would need to have a very fast detection algorithm or latency and tracking would go out the window.

https://www.fishman.com/portfolio/tripleplay-wireless-midi-guitar-controller/

I have Triple Play PUP and controller adapters on multiple guitars so for extra adapters see: https://fishmanstore.com/collections/tripleplay

I love being able to switch from Strat to Tele to ES-335, to SG, LP's, even a few archtops. some guitars (archtops, LP's and SG's need some fiddling to get hex PUP height good and to squeeze it in between bridge and bridge PUP)

I have been thinking about getting some of the CME gizmos (but those costs would add up quickly because I have a lot of MIDI keyboards and synth rack gear). Right now I use standard 5-pin MIDI cables to two JL CooperMSB Rev2 MIDI patch bays and on the computer I'm using on computer side a generic 4x4 USB MIDI I/O for all those items. (Too bad BIAB doesn't allow for multiple 16-channel MIDI ports at once)

Good luck

Larry

Huh, well Realband does, just sayin'