Hi all,

I’ve had the MOX6 for several months but I now find I need to program it for live use and it’s something of a nightmare, even with the help of this great forum… So I guess the easy route would be to either buy John Melas’s editor or to interface it with my ipad 4 and use the Yamaha editor apps, which I do have installed and which look very good indeed. An interface would be my ideal choice as I could use it for other devices. However, I’m running iOS 8 and I’m wondering how I can be certain that the cable/interface I buy will work with this setup, given that iOS 7 reportedly broke the connection and they were ‘working on it’?

I’m considering the following options:

1) A straightforward Lightning to USB adapter

2) iRig MIDI 2

3) The official Yamaha interfaces - which are expensive and not even Lightning, but of course if they’re guaranteed to work it will have to be one of these, but I hope not!

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Brian

I’m not surprised that this question didn’t get a response, I guess I’ll have to email Yamaha. Could anybody here give me an email address of a Yamaha tech (surely they should know!)?

Cheers,

Brian

Hi Brian --

I’m still using iOS7 on iPad 4 and plan to upgrade after a few more key apps support iOS8.

You’re right. MIDI over USB from iPad to MOX has been checkered.

I avoided the whole mess by using good ole 5-pin MIDI since I only need MIDI for my work. My interface is an iRig MIDI and use an Apple 30-pin to Lightning adapter. It communicates with a MOX6.

My only complaint—iOS7 and/or the app do not always detect the presence of the MIDI interface. Unplugging and plugging again usually clears up any problem.

Hope this helps—pj

P.S. This dependency on Apple must drive Yamaha software developers and support people crazy…

Whoops, forgot to mention.

I think Yamaha has shifted their forum-based support to http://yamahasynth.com. I’ve actually gotten replies there and that seems to be badmister’s new home.

Please come back, Phil. Was it something we said? :-)

-- pj

Hi PJ,

Thanks for the reply!

I have contacted Yamaha directly now but I don’t expect anything more than ‘we can’t comment on specific competitor products but buy our rather expensive interface instead, it might work’.

My plan at this point is to try to identify an interface that works via USB to Lightning (I seem to recall somebody in this forum stating that it will work with a basic cable, no interface needed - but that was, I think, referring to pre-iOS7 and pr-lightning). Such a lead would be handy for other uses; or I could buy a full computer/iOS audio interface with MIDI, which is definitely of use to me right now.

I’m also tempted by John Melas’s suite but I’m not really sure of its benefits over the ipad apps.

Thanks for your suggestions, I did look at the link you gave but I’ll wait to see what Yamaha suggests (if anything).

Cheers,

Brian

I think I’ll try this lead first, it will be useful for other things anyway…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Lightning-USB-Camera-Adapter/dp/B009WHV3XA/

...unless somebody here knows it won’t work - please tell me if you know!

Ok, unless I’m doing something wrong the official Apple Lightning to USB adapter via a USB cable plugged into the MOX doesn’t work (the MOX is set to USB mode).

I’m waiting for a USB to MIDI cable to arrive…

Received email from Yamaha who as predicted told me I would need their own adapters but if I were going to pay that amount of money I would be better off with John Melas’s editors as they’re more comprehensive anyway.

Success!

The following USB to MIDI adapter works perfectly for me:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/neusonik_umidi_o22.htm

That into this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Lightning-USB-Camera-Adapter/dp/B009WHV3XA/

into the ipad 4.

For my next trick I’m going to try the USB to Lightning lead in my M-Audio Venom, which is a class compliant audio device. I will report my findings here in a day or two.

Ok, it works but the midi latency is high in ‘big’ apps like Garageband. Audio seems to work fine.