Bidirectional midi?

guitarnerdswe

Fractal Fanatic
With this talk about the RJM and FAMC products maybe going to be fully compatible with the III, I'm curious if the IIIs midi in jack is bidirectional, meaning only one cable can by used to receive and send midi data to a foot controller?
 
With this talk about the RJM and FAMC products maybe going to be fully compatible with the III, I'm curious if the IIIs midi in jack is bidirectional, meaning only one cable can by used to receive and send midi data to a foot controller?

I don't see why not. The Axe II's are. You only need to connect up one cable between the RJM GT's at the Axe II's in order to get bidirectionality.
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Austin
 
I don't see why not. The Axe II's are. You only need to connect up one cable between the RJM GT's at the Axe II's in order to get bidirectionality.
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Austin
True, but the IIs midi in jack was 7 pin and supported phantom power. The III has neither of those functions so better to ask :)
 
From what I've read and watched from official RJM sources, bidirectional MIDI between a Mastermind and the II only required a 5 pin MIDI cable. Same should apply to the III.
 
I think the knowledge we are lacking is if the MIDI In socket on the III is bidirectional. The manual does not state that it is. Yes, it is 5-pin, but so is every other midi device which only has midi in. If it isn’t, it’s not too difficult to make a box which combines the In and Out and power to a 7 pin socket (RJM make this for their controllers), but I just haven’t seen yet if the Midi In is bidirectional on the III.
 
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7 pin is only needed for phantom power, i think midi only needs 3 pins to work, 5 allows bi-directional. The stuff RJM and FAMC needs is the specification (documentation) about the changes made to the MIDI in the III. This will allow them to make the tuner work, button states, patch names, and i'm sure other goodies. It's been requested weeks ago, and nothing from the Fractal camp.

I will speculate (only thing we can do without word from Fractal) that the reason for not providing it is that it's not finalized, and will probably be finalized after the FC's release, at least enough to give to third party developers. Heat shield activated.
 
I am using the Mastermind GT16 with the III with a single seven-pin midi cable (to supply phantom via the DIN7F adaptor) and it works great.
 
The Axe FX has been bidirectional from the II series forward for sure. As mentioned earlier, the 7 pin connector isn't required for bidirectional MIDI. Ron at RJM is just waiting on the protocols to work up the interface. I have already purchased and am using a MMGT 22, so bidirectional capability was a have-to-have before buying. RJM has a III in-house so I am sure he'd have said if he found it to be otherwise.

As far as I know, the only function removed was the ability to power the pedal through the Axe FX, which you never could do with a MMGT 22 anyway, as the current draw is too high.
 
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I think the bi-directional also depends on what controller you use. In order for me to have my lights work in real time, on my ART X-15, I have to have a send and receive cable. I made a fat cable that splits into midi sends and receives along with a 1/4" jack on each end.
 
I would hope Fractal has bi directional midi built in on the III and hope this is resolved soon. I have a MMGT 22 which I love but waiting for it to work like it did with the Axe-FX IIXL+ is something I am not going to do. I see in the foot controller section on the AXE III that they already have the FC-6 and FC-12 in there. Might be more user friendly just to use the FC-12. One cable versus two and a box to make it work seem like more trouble that it's worth. I like the idea of one cable in the back and that's it. I might be putting the MMGT 22 up for sale soon if this is not resolved.
 
I would hope Fractal has bi directional midi built in on the III and hope this is resolved soon. I have a MMGT 22 which I love but waiting for it to work like it did with the Axe-FX IIXL+ is something I am not going to do. I see in the foot controller section on the AXE III that they already have the FC-6 and FC-12 in there. Might be more user friendly just to use the FC-12. One cable versus two and a box to make it work seem like more trouble that it's worth. I like the idea of one cable in the back and that's it. I might be putting the MMGT 22 up for sale soon if this is not resolved.
Ummm... You might want to catch up on current news from RJM. They already have a firmware that works with Axe Fx III.

Also, on Fractal news. The Midi spec has been available for a while now ;)
 
Bi directional midi in the III is one of a few of the lost features regarding the II.
No idea why it was dropped, I made a breakout cable for my RJM with only one 5 pins midi cable to connect. A lot of posts on the subject, especially on the RJM forum.
 
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