cheap MIDI cables

OK, so here is what happened:

A guy at Sam Ash sold me some *cheap* MIDI cables saying that they
worked "just as well" for home use.

My experience is that they *don't."

In fact, my second TX81Z wasn't receiving MIDI data at all. I was
naturally, upset about this, and noticed that when I pushed the MIDI
plug more securely in, it worked!

HOWEVER, I noticed there were *still* some events not coming out
right. Short MIDI notes occasionally did not speak, and I got some
*cyphers* where the MIDI OFF data was obviously not received. I had
to shut the synth off in those cases!

I suspect it *still* has something to do with the cable, rather than
with the MIDISPORT box, since there was the more *severe* problem
initially.

I looked at these MIDI cables, and I noticed that the PINS have a
*smaller diameter* than the MIDI cables that I had around. They
*look* really cheap and these pins are thin. This makes me think
that maybe these cables don't sit so securely in the plug and this is
part of the problem.

I replaced these *new* cables with some older ones I had around with
the larger diameter pins, so, hopefully everything will be OK now,
although I haven't had time to test it yet.

Anybody else have any experiences with these "thin pin" MIDI cables,
or similar experiences with not getting data through "cheap" cables??

Thanks!

Joe Pehrson

In-Reply-To: <adqeu8+nt8s@...>
jpehrson2 wrote:

> Anybody else have any experiences with these "thin pin" MIDI cables,
> or similar experiences with not getting data through "cheap" cables??

I have had trouble with MIDI cables. I don't know if it's because they
were cheap or old. It does make sense not to buy the cheapest, but don't
overdo it and get the most expensive ones either. Where digital
communication's involved, you can't improve on perfection! There should
be no difference between "home" and "studio" use. Either they work
perfectly or they don't.

Graham