[sdiy] midi cable

[Scott Gravenhorst]

For what it is worth:
The Craig Anderton "MIDI for Musicians" book has the MIDI 1.0
spec, hardware section specifies 15 meters as the maximum
cable length.  The cable should be shielded twisted pair, the 
shield being connected to pin 2 at both ends.

Glen <mclilith at ezwv.com> wrote:
>At 10:05 PM 1/9/02 , Theo wrote:
>>Ordinary microphone cable (2 wires one shielding) will do nicely.
>>As always stronger cable will live longer on stage.
>>For studio use cheaper cable goes ok as there is little wear and tear.
>>Made two 12 meter midi cables in 1985 from cheap 'Monacor' mic cable
>>and those still work without any trouble.
>><banging head against wooden surface>
>>
>>BTW, 14 meters (551 inch, 15 Yard) is about the maximum you can
>>do for a reliable midi connection.
>>
>>Theo
>
>I would like to add that cable with a lower capacitance would be better than a
>cable with a higher capacitance. This becomes even more of an issue if you are
>wanting to make long MIDI cables. Many people pick low-capacitance cable for
>general audio use, but it's an even more important consideration for MIDI
>cables than for audio cables.
>
>When Theo mentioned 14 meter cables, it reminded me that the official MIDI
>specification had a limit on the maximum allowable length of a MIDI cable, but
>I can't recall what that was. If you exceed the maximum length by a large
>enough amount, then there is at least some chance the cable might not work
>reliably with all MIDI devices. 
>
>
>Later,
>Glen

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