Issue with a simple MIDI connection

  • Thread starter Thread starter nuemes
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nuemes

nuemes

Be Here Now
I hooked up my Roland Octapad PAD-80 to an R5 drum machine after 3 years of no use and... no go.

Here are the steps I took to set it up. Did I miss anything? The R5 works fine alone so I'm assuming it's the PAD-80, I can't figure out why they won't communicate:

1. When I hit the PAD-80 with drumsticks the PAD-80 volume meters move to show that the sticks are triggering the pads.

2. I set the Midi channel to 10 for both the PAD-80 & R5, and I set the Midi note numbers to match the corresponding PAD-80 pads & R5 sounds.

3. I set the PAD-80 as the master so it could trigger the R5's sounds. Plugged a MIDI cable from the PAD-80's MIDI out to the R5's MIDI in.

...And the R5 won't acknowledge that the PAD-80 is sending any MIDI information. I read the manuals; but non of the troubleshooting in them has helped. Any idea what may be up?
 
All I can suggest is maybe a bad midi cable. Or a variance in octave between the Pad-80 and the R5, but that would probably be a longshot since they're both made by Roland. It should be a simple matter to hook the two together since part of the intention in manufacturing the Octapad series was to give drummers better access to machine sounds...

On my R8 there was a facility to set both incoming and outgoing midi channels - are you sure you've set the right one?
 
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