Yamaha MIDI connection via midi cable to usb

[DeMaledictis]

Hello, I have recently considered starting producing some music, and so i have bought a MIDI to usb cable on amazon. it arrived and i connected it to my pc, following the steps recommended by the yamaha installation sheet, but i couldn't get it to work, since the computer won't recognize the keyboard as anything other then "USB midi interface" (this is a fairly old PSR-313), and when I try to run the setup for the keyboard MIDI driver, this error window comes up Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

If the keyboard has MIDI In/Out ports rather than a USB To Host port, and you're using a non-Yamaha USB-MIDI interface cable, then you can't (and don't need to) use the Yamaha USB-MIDI driver with it. In fact, you probably won't need to use a USB-MIDI driver with it at all, unless the interface cable requires one (and in that case it would need to be the driver written for the interface cable, not the keyboard).

Note that a lot of people have had trouble getting older Yamahas to work with the inexpensive USB-MIDI interface cables that you see on Amazon and other online store sites. It's best to spend a little bit more money to get a more reliable cable. I believe I can safely recommend the iConnectivity mio USB-MIDI interface cable, because someone who'd been having trouble getting an inexpensive cable to work with their older Yamaha purchased a mio after I'd tentatively recommended it, and they reported back that it's working perfectly.

 

[DeMaledictis]

thank you very much Michael, I was racking my brain trying to come up with a solution for this issue. the cable itself isn't exactly "high end", as it is a 15$ cable I found on amazon. I'll try using it directly with my DAW, I'll come back to you if I encounter new issues. thank you again for your time.
Edit: yes, my keyboard is very old, but still works decently, so I decided to start producing some music as a pastime activit, so it could very well be the cable. I'll let you know

 

[SeaGtGruff]

A moderator on another forum confirmed that the iConnectivity mio interface works flawlessly for him; he uses two of them with two older Yamaha synths.

I also read some additional information about why a lot of those cheaper USB-MIDI interfaces don't work with a lot of keyboards. It seems that a lot of them have very small data buffers-- as small as three bytes, which is just long enough for most MIDI messages, but too small for longer MIDI messages. Apparently that's why those cheap interface cables usually can't handle SysEx messages, although they might be able to send basic Note On/Off events and Control Change events.

 

[DeMaledictis]

thanks again, any tips on how to get the keyboard working with FL? (I'm still new to the environment, so help is appreciated)

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Sorry, I'm not familiar with FL Studio. I had the demo version installed on my older computer before its hard drive crashed (RIP), but I was never quite able to get up to speed on it.

What exactly are you wanting to do? Basic recording and editing should be fairly straightforward, but I personally use DAWs for things like using my keyboards to play virtual instruments-- that is, as host software for plugins-- and that in particular was one of the things I couldn't quite figure out in FL Studio.

 

[DeMaledictis]

I intend to use FL to create pretty basic beats and edit sessions with virtual instruments, so partly like you, but what I can't figure out, is how to connect the keyboard to FL itself to use it as an external controller, as not even the computer recognizes it as anything other than an "unknown MIDI device", but if you can't help me, it's really no problem, you've been very helpful for every other issue that has come up.
Edit: I got it to work, thank you for your help and patience

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I'm glad you finally got it to work! Out of curiosity, what did you need to do? Someone else may run into the same issue and it could help them to have your solution documented.

 

[DeMaledictis]

well, I simply had to go into the FL settings (duh), and add the external MIDI controller as input, which should be obvious but for some reason it never crossed my mind, no drivers needed.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Hi DeMaledictis

Glad you've solved your issue.

For anyone else having similar issues, I would highly recommend the Roland UM1 Mk2 midi to usb interface. I've yet to find any keyboard that it won't work with....doesn't need to be a Roland. At around £25 gbp it's certainly one of the most useful, hassle free pieces of kit I've ever used. Well made too, with really good quality cables, unlike some of the complete cheap rubbish on auction sites, most of which don't or won't work anyway. Not worth wasting money on.

Just load up the correct driver from the Roland website, I use Windows 10, plug in the UM, and off you go..and it will recognise it immediately on your music software.
Hope that helps.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Yes, the big keyboard companies (Roland, Yamaha, etc.) who make USB-MIDI interface cables can be counted on to produce good-quality merchandise. I'm not sure why Yamaha seems to have stopped making the UX16 interface-- unless it's just a temporary stoppage due to hard-to-get parts because of the COVID pandemic.