A "remote" midi keyboard station to zynthian

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I’m very new to Zythian I’m sorry,

I have a kind of “problem”/wish.
I have a StudioLogic SL88 and I want to steam over air to my audio station on the other side of the room.

With option can I use the best ?

KB–>Zynthian–>BLE–>Zynthian–>AudioSpeakers
KB–>Zynthian–>WiFI–> Zynthian–>AudioSpeakers
KB–>Rpi/RTP-MIDI/QmidiNet–> WiFi–> Zynthian–AudioSpeakers

Other posible option
KB- ->SL Mixface–> BLE -->Zynthian–>AudioSpeakers

What is the best solution.
Which protocol is better to use BLE or WIFI.

Thanx a lot
Regards,
Jan-Willem

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Hi @j-vanwijk!

I don’t think that Zynthian supports BLE. It does support some WiFi protocols:

  • QmidiNet (IP Multicast) - This works pretty well. It is a simple “send and pray” messaging system which keeps latency to a minimum but there is a risk of lost messages. You simply set up the sender and the receiver and it should work. WiFi may introduce significant latency and jitter.
  • RTP-MIDI (AppleMIDI network) - This requires configuring a network manager which Zynthian doesn’t do so you need some other device on the network like a computer to handle that. RTP-MIDI does not guarantee delivery and I believe (but have not checked) that AppleMIDI implementation uses UDP for low latency but there are extra mechanisms for monitoring data, e.g. the journal which might (I haven’t checked) reduce data loss
  • OSC - Much of Zynthian can be controlled via OSC. There is its native CUIA for system control and also TouchOSC MIDI Bridge which allows note data to be passed. (We should add this to the native implementation…)

You could also use a wireless MIDI connector like this:
wireless_midi

I am nervous of using wireless systems or connections. There is a battle between latency, jitter and robust message delivery and hardware devices often need to be powered which needs consideration. I have used RTP-MIDI to link Zynthians (when I couldn’t be bothered to find a cable) but invariably there are issues, even over Ethernet and especially over WiFi.

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@riban thanx a lot

I’m a ware of the latency. It’s for home use. So if it’s I hope acceptable.

I was stucked with the Applemidi. But I will give it another try.
And I will give qmidinet a try.
Maybe it can run on a rpi zero and send it to a rpi 4 with zynthian.

Thanx a lot.

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4

Yes you could certainly use a Pi Zero-W but you do have to wait for the OS to load. I think I would be tempted to buy or build a sender that was MIDI powered (which needs to be very low power for to maximum 20mA on MIDI port) and maybe try to write a software module to enable WIDI on Zynthian… That is if I needed to and had the time!

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Hi,
the best solution is with wire. In your case KB → RTP-MIDI (RPi Zero) ->Network switch and in parallel Zynthian RPT-MIDI router → Network switch

but don’t be afraid to use this KB–> WIDI Master (or WIDI Bud Pro) → WIDI Bud Pro → Zynthian –> AudioSpeakers

WIDI Master and WIDI Bud Pro I using for wireless connection with Akai EWI USB and synths. In the case of home studio it is without problems.

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A few more observations.
Wire path - you need to install the RTP midi client on Rpi Zero, take care of the automatic start. I’m using https://mclarenlabs.com/ on an RPi4 with PatchBox Os and connecting to two Zynthians.

Wireless way - You set up both WIDI devices via mobile and connect them to the widi network. The advantage is that you can add three more WIDI devices, i.e. three more controllers connected to one zynthian.

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