H9 and MIDI Solutions Quadra Thru

[mahler007]

Dear Forum,

I bought a MIDI Solutions Quarda Thru for use with my H9 and a few other pedals. My plan was to use the H9 as the MIDI Clock master as well as tap tempo, etc.

The Quadra Thru is non-powered, and draws power via the MIDI connection from whatever device is plugged into its MIDI IN port.

Unfortunately, the Quadra Thru did not power up when I plugged the H9 into it, although it seemed to work fine when I plugged my Roland A30 keyboard controller into it.

Can anyone here confirm that th H9 *does not* send power over its MIDI connection? The MIDI Solutions website gives a long list of products that cannot power the Quadra Thru over MIDI, but there are no Eventide boxes included. Consequently, I figured it would work. Just wanted to see if anyone here can confirm my suspicions.

http://www.midisolutions.com/faqs.htm#LED

Thanks for any info!

Best Wishes,

Andrew M. Lee

[brock]

I have a Quadra Thru and H9 on my pedalboard.  Normally, the Quadra Thru MIDI IN is fed by my Lexicon MPX1 (master clock & control source), then split out to the H9 and several other MIDI-capable pedals.  I switched the routing around as an experiment for your question.

Unfortunately, I’m seeing the same results: The H9 MIDI OUT does not power the MIDI IN of the Quadra Thru.  I tried a number of system options: switch to XMT, unplugging USB cable and rebooting, MIDI Clock On and Off … I never got the Quadra Thru’s MIDI indicator to light up.

This is all rather strange.  The MIDI Solutions boxes are all designed to power off the “normal” 5V of any MIDI signal.  Nothing special.  I can’t recall any MIDI device or chain that did NOT power a MIDI Solutions pedal; even in a long daisy chain.  I have a complex system here, so I might’ve missed something.  But everything I tried wouldn’t power the Quadra Thru from an H9.

MIDI Solutions does offer an auxiliary power rig for devices that won’t self-power. That kind of defeats the purpose of one main benefit, but I suppose it’s an option (cobbled together with an added cost).

[JCR]

Hi Andrew,

I am using a Midi Solutions Merger. It only powers from the H9 if you have an closed midi loop. If you connect the output of the Quadra Thru to the input of the H9 and the input of the Quadra Thru to the output of the H9 you wil see the light of the Thru lit. I’ll guess it is a midi ground thing. The H9 probably has special wiring (midi ground not connected on output connector?). The loop described does not help because it is useless, but in my setup, which has a closed midi loop it is working perfectly. See the picture below how my midi is setup on my pedalboard.

The mi.1 is a wireless Bluetooth LE adapter so I can control both my H9’s by bluetooth from apps on my ipad. This works great and the merger draws the power from the H9 output thru the mi.1. Maybe you can create a closed loop too? Otherwise you probably need an extra MIDI Solutions MIDI Power block. If the picture of my midi setup is not showing up, I have attached it too.

 

Good luck…

[mahler007]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies.

JCR, I tried connecting the Quadra Thru in the manner you suggested, but still to no avail. Perhaps the Quadra Thru is wired differently than the Merger?

In any case, I will likely be returning the Quadra Thru and replacing it with a Molten Voltage MIDI Splitty, which should hopefully do the trick.

Thanks again for your help.

Best,

Andrew

[Author]

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