Well, you could use a MIDI interface/patcher to distribute the signal between all your MIDI devices to the respective device that's supposed to receive it. That way, there is no chain, all devices are directly connected to the MIDI interface/patcher.

I use a Roland Edirol UM-550 for that. But of course there are many more from different brands in various sizes and price ranges.

By the way, if I recall that correctly, MIDI thru only works with up to five devices until you can encounter issues due to the increasing signal latency.

MIDI THRU isn't ideal because all of the devices have to be turned on. So If you 5 modules chained up and want to use the last one, you will have to turn on all of them, wasting quite a bit of power. Plus depending on how you have your audio cables connected you may need to mute them all too.

I too have a UM-550. Very nice piece of tech, but they aren't cheap. There are alternatives though, the search term you want is a MIDI patch-bay or MIDI patcher depending on what part of the world you live in.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I just purchased the Roland UM-550 so I am good to go.

You can also use a roland mpu-104 which is a 5 midi selector. these work very nicely too

SuperDeadite wrote:

MIDI THRU isn't ideal because all of the devices have to be turned on. So If you 5 modules chained up and want to use the last one, you will have to turn on all of them, wasting quite a bit of power.

Another reason is that every time the signal passes through a device, it gets slightly distorted in the opto-isolator due to imbalance in signal rise and fall times.
The midi specs suggest using high-speed opto-isolators in long midi device chains.
Long being interpreted as more than three devices.

I just thought of something... If I have my UM-550 connected to 5 sound modules and those 5 had MIDI THRU jacks on them could I add another 5 for a total of 10 active or would that blow up my UM-550?

m5215tx wrote:

I just thought of something... If I have my UM-550 connected to 5 sound modules and those 5 had MIDI THRU jacks on them could I add another 5 for a total of 10 active or would that blow up my UM-550?

The UM-550 doesn't care what happens behind it. It just receives the MIDI signal from up to five different sources and either routes it to one to five receiving devices or it can merge the MIDI signal of the source devices and forward it to one to five receiving devices. It can do a lot of things (the manual is still online at Roland's site). What the receiving device does is up to the receiving device. It can of course pass the MIDI signal on to the next device. Like already mentioned before, the device that passes the MIDI signal on to the next in line would have to be turned on in order to do that.

Of course you could also buy a UM-880 or combine several UM-550 in order to increase its potential and forget about daisy chaining 😀

https://www.roland.com/global/support/by_prod … owners_manuals/

An M-Audio Midisport 2X4 , when run in passive mode essentially acts as two MIDI splitters stuck together . You can even plug one the OUTs on one side to the IN on the other side and get a 1 to 3 MIDI splitter . That is how I use mine .

Honestly, I am not sure I should even be suggesting this but, electrically, it would be permissible to simply make a plain old basic splitter cable. All MIDI 1.0 spec devices should have their inputs all electrically isolated so this should be okay, my biggest concern is that the output is able to supply enough current to support the load of all of the opto-isolator inputs.

In case it's not obvious, I have NEVER tried this. And not sure I recommend it, but it is theoretically possible.

RJDog wrote:

Honestly, I am not sure I should even be suggesting this but, electrically, it would be permissible to simply make a plain old basic splitter cable. All MIDI 1.0 spec devices should have their inputs all electrically isolated so this should be okay, my biggest concern is that the output is able to supply enough current to support the load of all of the opto-isolator inputs.

In case it's not obvious, I have NEVER tried this. And not sure I recommend it, but it is theoretically possible.

That's the concern. Each MIDI receiver will be getting half the nominal design current. This may be problematic (depending on the transfer ratio of the optocoupler used).

Again, the simplest DIY fix is to use an optocoupler driving a TTL buffer circuit. Exactly what's used isn't too important. 74x07 chips could drive six outputs, 74x08 quad AND or 74x32 quad OR could drive four, etc.

Just about to connect up my Roland SC-88VL and Yamaha MU-50 to my HP T610 Thin Client which I'll be using DOSBox with. I've got the Roland UM-ONE Mk2 ... I'm assuming the only other thing I need to connect both of these devices at once would be a single MIDI cable between the 2 sound modules? If so, how do I hook all this up... ?

My thinking is: Thin Client USB port > Roland UM ONE Mk2 > MIDI 'IN' on Roland SC-88VL > Separate MIDI cable connected to MIDI 'THRU' on Roland SC-88VL > MIDI IN on Yamaha MU-5o....

Thoughts?
Thanks guys

Yes, but a midi output replicator is better so you dont need both modules running to use the MU50.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-29, 09:26:

Yes, but a midi output replicator is better so you dont need both modules running to use the MU50.

Don’t think I’ve heard of a MIDI replicator before?

ras2a wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:51:

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-29, 09:26:

Yes, but a midi output replicator is better so you dont need both modules running to use the MU50.

Don’t think I’ve heard of a MIDI replicator before?

The correct term is "midi thru out". Search anywhere for that.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:58:

ras2a wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:51:

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-29, 09:26:

Yes, but a midi output replicator is better so you dont need both modules running to use the MU50.

Don’t think I’ve heard of a MIDI replicator before?

The correct term is "midi thru out". Search anywhere for that.

So something like this...

https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Comp … 5-Thru-Box/21ET

ras2a wrote on 2020-05-29, 12:04:

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:58:

ras2a wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:51:

Don’t think I’ve heard of a MIDI replicator before?

The correct term is "midi thru out". Search anywhere for that.

So something like this...

https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Comp … 5-Thru-Box/21ET

Yup. Of course with only 2 devices a bit of overkill - but who knows you might expand your stack over time 😁

Thank you very much for your help 😀

And yeah, I may well pick up other sound modules in the future. I used to own a TG-100 back in my music production days (90’s) so may pick up one as it holds a lot of nostalgic value 😀