Strange Midi Cable Question

[Kelly Lee]

Many insane ideas swirl within my fragile little mind so bear with me. I was wondering if a standard midi cable can carry an instrument signal like a guitar cable? Please don't think I'm going to hook up an instrument to a midi device! Its just a crazy idea I'm conjuring up at the moment. BTW, if it can, anyone know who sells the midi sockets? Thanks for putting up with strangeness!

 

[Benjamin Strange]

I suppose one could if you wired the jack correctly. It is just a wire.

 

[Kelly Lee]

Thanks. I guess I should also ask do you think it would pick up noise more than a guitar cable if about 18ft long?

 

[Petebass]

My understanding is that a midi cable has many strands of copper wire running through it (from memory it's 5 but I'm not sure). Compare that to a instrument cable which has 2, one for positive and one for negative. you'de have to be very careful when wiring it up that you keep track of which of the 5 wires you're soldeing up.

I'm not explaining this very well am I?

OK pretend you toop pin 1 of the midi cable and wired it to the positive terminal of the 1/4 jack. You'd have to be very careful at the other end of the cable to make sure you correctly identify pin 1 and also attach that to the positive terminal. Hook it up to any other pin and the signal won't get through.

 

[Mottlefeeder]

... BTW, if it can, anyone know who sells the midi sockets?

Midi sockets are one of the European DIN hi-fi sockets, so any of the larger electronic component suppliers would probably carry them. They range from 2 pin (for speakers) to about 8 pin, and the one you want would be a 5 pin spaced out around 180 degrees. (Half a circle - be careful, they also make one with the pins spaced out around 270 degrees.)

 

[fulcrum]

I would think that the longer the wire, the more susceptible you would be to RFI. Consider that Ethernet cables use CAT-5, which is four twisted pairs of copper wire... the twisting helps to cancel out the radio frequencies that the copper might pick up.

I would think you could get the DIN jacks at your friendly neighborhood Radio Shack.

Petebass, your explanation works for me.

 

[Kelly Lee]

Thanks guys. I have been trying to find the right sockets put haven't been able to so far.

 

[grovest]

You could also use DIN 7 if DIN 5 is not available.

 

[Mottlefeeder]

You could also use DIN 7 if DIN 5 is not available.

Socket - yes, plug - no.
If you want to make a lead from your instrument to your gadget, the sockets on the instrument and the gadget can have 7 holes, but the plugs need to have that number of pins or less.