Control several devices by midi from Digitone

Hello. I want to control 2 devices by midi from Digitone. These devices don’t have midi thru so I’m looking for a splitter…
I found two kind of solutions:
Some boxes like this: https://www.thomann.de/intl/midi_solutions_quadra_thru_v2.htm
And just very simple cable splitter like this: https://a.co/d/gNyrklz
So, will this simple cable solution work for me, or there is some specials things in that box which makes it possible to split midi?
Many thanks!

previously on The Elektronauts

and here

I hope this will help you with answering your question.

but in general no - and yes. in that order.

2 Likes

thank you!

we aim to please!

midi solutions also makes “thru” which has 2 outs if you don’t need 4 from the quadra thru.

1 Like

Yep, I need just 2, not 4

Mindburner are great value devices. Very small company out of NI. I bought their tiny passive 4-out device a couple of years ago, no problems with it connecting Digitakt > Bass Station, Digitone, Kaoss Pad (1x free port)

1 Like

Well, I checked that topics and there is no info about Y splitters like in my example. Also I found video where Y splitter works well:

So… where is the truth :slight_smile:

It appears those can/may work, but they’re not implemented in a way which neatly follows the spirit of the midi connection philosophy - in your case you may be fine, i’ve read of those being used, but they are not a solution to all situations and that’s still a bit of spend out of a more future-proof solution - so maybe not a great investment, but also maybe a cheap fix.

tbh - i don’t know what else is happening in ‘proper’ passive splitters - but for a robust solution a powered Thru box should stand you in good stead

If it was me and i was investing in a bit of midi ‘plumbing’ i’d try to get something a bit more flexible that can do merging and maybe has a matrix - there are a tonne of topics on these kinds of devices - second hand 8x8 midi devices can be a bit extreme for a small studio setup, but they’re available cheaply and have a lot of functionality in terms of routing convenience and maybe filtering

if you can afford to waste the money on something a bit ‘unofficial’ then you could try, but be aware there is perhaps the potential to misuse

go for it - it’s your call though, but it may be worth planning ahead, it’s not something i would buy into even though i’m not too sure what functionality is omitted from a passive Thru solution, i only have active Thru’s and some matrix boxes and a proper merge device

2 Likes

splitter boxes that draw power from the midi connection offer opto-isolation on each port which separates them from each other so that they can sort and pass on note data/cc and clock data to more than one device - the guy in your video is only sending clock to one device and note data to another. I wouldn’t trust it for that either but if your intention is only to send clock data as a daisychain sync function you are welcome to try it, theoretically that daisychain sending of clock should work. You said you wanted to control 2 devices from DN so it sounded as though your goal was to sequence 2 pieces of gear, I think that’s not going to be possible with a passive y splitter. If you can buy it and return it, give it a shot otherwise consider that a quadra thru is available for $18.50 currently on reverb and ask yourself if it’s really worth buying the cable for $12 or whatever it costs. Incidentally this is a good deal, I paid $20 used for each of my my midi solutions thru boxes and $40 for my quadra thru and I thought those were both good deals.

3 Likes

Ok, I will try Y first, not because of price, but because I don’t have a spare place in my case :smiley:
Will report the result in few weeks I think, when the rest of my gear will come.
Thank you, guys for good meaningful answers!

1 Like

A simple MIDI splitter will do the trick (tested and working: spent 15€).
If u want to control more than one: MidiHub will do even more tricks (tested and working).
Hope this help.

1 Like