How to Wire a MIDI Patch Bay

MIDI can be used with electronic keyboards.

MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is a way to interface a variety of audio technologies - such as mixers and keyboards -- with a computer, most likely in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) environment. Wiring your MIDI patches depends on the setup you want to achieve. While this can vary greatly from user to user, fundamental setup concepts will remain the same.

Things You'll Need

• Computer audio interface with MIDI support
• MIDI cable
• Interface devices

Instructions

1. Make sure your audio interface with MIDI is properly configured with the necessary drivers. If you do not have an audio interface, you can purchase one from a variety of audio hardware companies.

2. Take one end of your MIDI cable and connect it into the "Output" MIDI port on your desired device. Follow that same end (or color, as the connectors are often color coded) to the other end of the cable, and connect it to the "Input" port on the audio interface.

3. Connect one to the "Output" port on the audio interface and the other to the "Input" port of the device of interest with the remaining two connectors -- should be the same color if color coded. This completes the "In -> Out, Out -> In" setup.

4. Power on your audio interface and device of interest. Open up your DAW program and check to see that the device is recognized. This will vary between different pieces of software, but the status can usually be seen in a settings option of some sort.

References

• Cakewalk: Basic MIDI Setup