16 Jun
2022
16 Jun
'22
3:27 a.m.
On Wed, 15 Jun 2022, Bob van der Poel wrote:
I'm looking at the Casio WK 6600 keyboard and see
that the old fashioned
MIDI connectors are replaced with a USB - B connector. Can anyone answer:
1. These connections are okay to connect my linux desktop computer to the
keyboard using a standard USB A-B cable?
That is the intention. It should look like a midi port on your computer.
2. How long can the MIDI cable be? I suppose if
it's too short I could
always insert an extension cable?
Assuming you really mean USB cable and not MIDI cable, Yes. Maximum cable
length USB-IF Standard is 5m (16.4 feet) though there are some passive
cables made (Newnex for one) good for up to 10m. Beyond that you need an
active USB cable... depending on what they put in there, this will work
fine or it will give problems.
My personal thought would be to keep things as short as needed remembering
that you want real time, accurate (no dropouts) data transfer. A missed
note is annoying, a wrong note, or garbled cc/program change is more
annoying and a missed note off could be really annoying. I don't know if
flaky USB would show up that way or if the USB connection shows a broken
more easily.
3. Could I use a real MIDI cable from the computer and
convert that to USB?
First thought is "don't go there" The keyboard is a client not a host and
you would need a small computer to act as that host and use it's serial
i/o as MIDI. The MIDI data would have to be stored and resent, collecting
latency along the way.
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net