why I hate minijack MIDI

What do you think? Is TRS MIDI rubbish? What other gadgets/solutions have I missed?

I'm saving my rage for the ubiquity of USB for power and the endless ground loops that it causes.

Thanks for the mentions Stephen - too bad TRS-B was already out in the wild indeed but the moment the MIDI standard was set to A we just went for it on all our own devices - and because of this standard we could make the RK006 do more than just MIDI on it's TRS outputs 😬

din-5 for life

The important problem is that the MIDI bus is isolated with optocouplers to prevent noise or ground issues. But devices with TRS MIDI don't always have optocouplers. Typically devices with TRS MIDI will also have USB power and they usually don't isolate that, either. So everybody has awesome MIDI devices with great audio quality except who cares because it's got constant interference. The only way you can fix that is getting either an expensive isolated industrial USB hub or a super sketchy USB isolator dongle which will probably die quickly because the device is drawing more power than it can handle (usually about 200 mA). It's not something most people will notice unless you're plugging your USB-powered synth into the same power brick as something else. Then it's crazy how noisy some things get. Guitar pedals have used TRS MIDI (and even TS MIDI) for much longer, and the companies that make guitar pedals seem to not have any of these problems. Even Roland does a better job when they're putting the Boss name on things LOL.

The same company that sells the RK006 also sells TRS to TRS cables which flip the A and B line. (Not to be confused to the TRS to big DIN adapters). The flip adapters are very small since they have TRS on both sides. So I bought a whooooooole bunch of them, 10 at once. And whenever my connection doesn’t work I add one of these (or remove it if it already was on the cable). and the cool thing you don’t have to think about if your device is B and the cable is coming from an A source or tif he device is A and the cable is coming from a B source, the flip adapter works in all scenarios, and it also doesn’t matter on what end you prepend or append the adapter. By having a whooooole bunch of them I also prevent myself from having to search them or running out of them. Ever since I did do this purchase I went from hating TRS midi to absolutely loving it, because it always works, it doesn’t take up desk space and it doesn’t require computers or hosting.

Totally agree - it could have been awesome, but instead it's a constant source of frustration.

100% agree ... especially if you are new to the scene and were told "oh yea MIDI is the standard how equipment talks to each other" .. ummm what?? THEN you go buy what you THINK is the right TRS to DIN adapter off of amazon but if the vendor did not also show a pick of the wiring diagram you get the wrong thing. ugh.

The best (but janky) solution I have found is using TRS to RCA cables and swapping the stereo channels when going A to B. I don’t know why there was no agreement on this until recently.

I like 5 pin MIDI, it's a solid connection like XLR jacks, and reliable.

Good semi-rant. Carry on. :) I prefer 5-pin...but I also collect old synths.

I really like that Elektron made the mini-jack midi polarity switchable in their model: series

Midi 2.0 is on its way, and is USB-C connector to USB-C connector, it will solve a bunch of problems while creating some new ones. especially for those of us who occasionally circuit bend stuff. I recently watched a talk on it at a tech conference, software support is well on its way for alot of embedded operating systems then we will probably start to see more devices.

I can't believe MIDI 2.0 isn't a wireless system with affordable dongle plugs baked in. It reminds me of Henry Ford saying “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

One kind out of the Force, and another into the FM2, I'm about to have masking tape on everything just like Da, the adoption has been an insane process

I stil remember using 5pin din cables to record the Top 40 from the stereo to my ITT tape recorder in the 1970s. Happy days....

Great info! Thank you

I totally agree, one exception trs midi in an analog the things two exceptions and that’s breath control… which just a personal piece of electronic paraphilia for me in modular, like mpe cv control would be for people who’ve done this, the other though is the new 6mod6 module and daw automation…. It generally takes a lot for me to care about gears but it is a wicked out of the box thought.

Educational stuff, thanks

I just recently purchased a Morningstar MIDI Box to make these connections more convenient. You do have to know whether your device is TRS type A or B to set the individual port jumpers but once that’s done you’re good to go. Another good option for 1/4” (6.35mm) TRS MIDI is the Strymon Conduit.