Roland PK-5 Foot Control Pedals- Please Help

[Nova70]

Hi,
We just started using the Roland PK-5 Foot Pedals in our 3 piece band. I have it hooked up to a Roland U-20. Midi out on the pedals to midi in on the keyboard..works fine. I have the U-20 midi out going to a Juno Midi in so we can layer two sounds. Here is the problem I'm running into, if I play the u-20 manually it also plays the Juno which is what we want. However if we us the Pk-5 pedals only the U-20 plays not the Juno. What are we doing wrong, why won't the PK-5 play the Juno also. Am I missing something Midi wise? Do I have the midi cables routed wrong? If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks much in advance,
Pat

 

[happyrat1]

You need a cable wired up from MIDI THRU on the U-20 to MIDI IN on the Juno to relay incoming messages on the U-20 to the next machine.

If the keyboard has a combined MIDI OUT/THRU port then there may be some menu diving necessary to enable MIDI THRU on the board.

the difference between midi out and midi thru - Google Search

Gary

 

[delaware dave]

I'd like to expand on the above answer. Even if the PK5, the U-20 and the Juno are all on the same MIDI channel, when you MIDI out from the 2nd device (the U-20), unless the 2nd device has a MIDI MERGE feature it will only move its own source data from the U20 to the Juno, it will not pick up the PK5 and move it forward to the Juno. If the U-20 has a MIDI Merge feature then it will; I doubt that it does. My GEM Equinox does have this feature, my Kurzweil PC3 does not. Because the GEM does I could do what you are trying to do without changing any of the cables that you setup, I would just turn the MIDI MERGE functionality on on the Equinox , and it will send both signals out of its MIDI OUT. Also, because you are sending MIDI out to the Juno from the U20 it was previously suggested in the above post to send a MIDI Thru cable from the U-20 to the Juno in a addition to the MIDI OUT cable of the U-20 to the Juno. This will only work if your JUNO can accept two MIDI IN's (has two MIDI IN ports). It probably does not, so you could be stuck. The solution would be a MIDI Merge box, again only necessary if your U-20 doesn't have a MIDI Merge feature) or if your Juno does not have two MIDI IN ports. So you would send the PK5 MIDI out to the U-20 midi in, then the MIDI out and the MIDI Thru from the U-20 (two separate cables) into a MIDI MERGE box, and then the out of the MIDI Merge box into the JUNO MIDI IN. Check your owners manual to see if the U-20 has a MIDI MERGE feature, if it does simply turn it on and your setup as is will work. The MIDI MERGE box will take the two sources (one from the PK5 and one from the U-20's own MIDI out data, combine them (MERGE) and send both signals down the MIDI path. If you need a MIDI MERGE box, I'd recommend this one and look for a used one on EBAY, it will be cheaper. I have this MIDI MERGE box, although I don't need it because my GEM Equinox has a MIDI MERGE feature; but in the event the keyboard were to go down and I had to use a backup keyboard that doesn't have MIDI Merge I simply would use this box and can get through the gig.

MIDI Solutions Merger; Two Input MIDI Merger

Here's one on EBAY ebay link

 

[Nova70]

Thanks to all for your help, I hooked the cables as suggested by Gary and now the PK-5 is playing both keyboards.Excellent, but now when I play the u-20 manually (not using the Pk-5) it does not play the juno as before. If that cant be done that's ok since the pk-5 are more important as the Bass player is using the. I will check on the U-20 for that midi merge feature as suggested by Delaware dave on u-20. Or did I miss something again in the hookup?
Regards
Pat

 

[happyrat1]

You didn't miss a thing. In order for the keyboard and the pedal to transmit simultaneously thru MIDI you'd have to run both MIDI OUT and MIDI THRU on the U-20 thru a MIDI Merge Box to the Juno.

There might be a SOFT MIDI THRU option in the U-20 Menus that would allow this as well but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

Gary

 

[delaware dave]

Midi thru is a copy of midi in. If you have switched the source cable on the u20 from midi out to midi thru then what is traveling out the cable of the u20 is whatever coming in the midi in, which would be the pk5. In order to have the u20 also play the juno a cable has to be connected to the u20's midi out to the juno's midi. In order for both the pk5 and the u20 to replicate those notes on the Juno both a Midi Out cable and a midi thru cable must be attached to the U20 and both must be plugged into the Juno at the same time. This would require two Midi IN ports on your Juno which it doesnt have. Instead you need to plug those two cables coming from the U20 into a MIDI MERGE box and then a single output midi cable from the MIDI MERGE Box's OUT to the Midi IN of the Juno.

MIDI Basics :: MIDIWORLD.COM

 

[happyrat1]

Didn't I just say that?

Gary

 

[Nova70]

Thank you both for the great information and taking time to explain. I glad we are able to use the pedals they way we intended to.
Regards
Pat