What's up with USB MIDI?? Also wondering about USB host/routing solutions

[SynthWizard]

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What's up with USB MIDI?? Also wondering about USB host/routing solutions

So I've come across a rather unexpected and irritating limitation of my Roland FP-10 keyboard. I bought it because I'm into learning piano and wanted a full-size weighted keyboard, but I also like to experiment with other sounds and synths, so (in theory) it would be pretty great as a MIDI controller. It works fine with a computer or iPad and I'm happy with the weighted key action.

I also recently bought this really cool Yamaha Reface CP, which makes some of the most amazing electric piano sounds. I love it for the sounds and for its extreme portability. HOWEVER... since the FP-10 only has USB MIDI out, I cannot plug it into the Reface as a controller. I have tried a different keyboard with old (round 5-pin) MIDI out and it can play through the Reface without a hitch.

I can also plug both the Roland and the Reface into a computer and use a MIDI program to route one into the other, but this is stupidly awkward for my home setup. I really just want to just turn both keyboards on and play - I don't want to add an extra computer into the mix with its own power and space requirements.

Everything I've read about USB MIDI makes it sound like it's supposed to be superior - it can supply power, it's two-way, it's faster, more bandwidth, etc. But apparently you can't have one device act as a "host" this way? I must be missing something because it seems absurd that I can plug in two 5-pin MIDI devices and everything just works but not with USB.

Looking around at other FP alternatives, it seems you have to spend about 3X as much on a full-size weighted keyboard that has traditional 5-pin MIDI out (how much would one of these cost to add, I mean really??)

I also have Roland's UM-ONE MkII USB-MIDI conversion cable, but even this won't allow me to plug the FP into the Reface(!)

I understand that I can buy a standalone MIDI host device of some sort. But they're like $200 which seems kind of absurd. I assume it'll need its own power supply as well. So another wire, another slot on the power bar...

I've looked into a solution like using a Raspberry Pi Zero as a MIDI host/router but as far as I can tell it would require its own power supply (you cannot use its USB power connector for data unfortunately.) I was hoping there might be some (cheap) DIY solution that could be powered by the Reface or FP and route the MIDI channels, but I don't know of any cheap hardware that can be both powered by USB and transfer data. I'm also not sure if either keyboard actually supplies power.

Basically I would like to have:

FP --(usb cable)--> [magic box] --(usb cable)--> Reface 

I realize that any DIY solution would take more than $200 worth of time but I am tempted to work on something out of spite (I am a software developer, so writing a bit of software would be feasible.) Mostly I'm just baffled why you can't plug one USB MIDI device into another the same way you could with 5-pin MIDI. I'm also pretty new to synthesizers and MIDI so maybe I'm just not understanding something obvious...

submitted by /u/cinaddict
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