[Tip of the day] Old gear via USB&MIDI

“OH, NO!!! :astonished: He’s back with one of those tips that never work!”
Yeah, a few of my most recent tips have exploded in my face haha :laughing: :blush:
But this :confused: seems to work:

I have a AKAI MPD16 4x4 drum pad gizmo which AKAI in their infinite wisdom have decided to stop supporting.
In this case it means no new drivers!
Long story short, I tried to use a USB cable for power and a MIDI cable for … MIDI.
And it works!!! :sunglasses: No drivers involved … EVER!

It’s slightly crippled though, since the onscreen GUI with all functionality isn’t available in Win7 64.
But vee hav ouR wayz aRound zat kind of pRoblem, you know …
Hint: it works in my XP32 boot :wink:

Anyways, if you have some old USB thinge without driver support but with a MIDI port, it’s definitely worth a try.

The other way works well too … i.e. you have a MIDI-only device which has no USB. I recently got an ESI MIDIMate II for small change and it works perfectly with my old QY10 (!). It doesn’t even care which way you plug it in – if you plug both MIDI connectors into MIDI inputs then your computer sees two MIDI outs, or if you plug both connectors into MIDI outputs your computer sees two MIDI ins.

Amazing useful little gadget! :astonished: