Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards MIDI ports (or lack of) on new Roland HP504, HP506 and HP508

My pleasure, glad you found use for it.

I think they left off the MIDI ports because they've assessed the market and people mostly don't use them or need them. If you do need them, just buy a piano that has them. Simple.

Yeah, what MacMacMac said.
These are Home Pianos, not for gigging out or driving rack gear.
If you need hydrostatic drive just buy a tractor that HAS hydrostatic drive, this one doesn't
(deliberate mixed metaphor)

Just reading through the manual and brochures it seems they are retreating from MIDI(obviously) for Home Pianos and trying to move TOWARDS Wan connectivity and i-phone/pad apps.
The WNA1100-RL thing is about $60 on Amazon.

Arguably a trend to welcome ? Depends if you are a rack rat from way back I guess.
Nonetheless, see page 52 of the manual.

Whilst this is of course true - and I did buy a DP with MIDI IN, MIDI OUT and two USB connections and I use all these connections - the point is that, the way things seem to be going, this will not be an option soon. There won't be a choice.

So everything will have to be routed through a computer: modules, keyboards, other sequencers. It does enforce a considerably higher level of complexity and potential for breakdowns and crashes.....this is true of most tech stuff these days.

I agree, lack of MIDI ports is less of an issue for a non-portable and/or non-professional device because there will be less need to connect it to other MIDI devices. That said, what bothers me about relying on USB ports alone is that, 5 or 10 years from now, they may be obsolete, and people won't have computers that are compatible with these systems, whereas standard 5-pin MIDI compatibility will probably out live all of us.

Yes, if you have an iphone.

Yes, I'm a rack rat from way back. It's a nice description.

I looked at the link but couldn't find page 52. The MIDI implementation stuff only went up to 40 something....and anyway was not really relevant to this......am I looking at the wrong document?

Or a computer with a USB port.
Pretty common these days, methinks.

Hey R_B, thanks for looking into this. I have already checked the manual. This is the diagram (page 52 of the HP506 manual) I think you're referring to:



It seems they copied this from the HP505 manual, just inserting "USB" before the word "MIDI". But it doesn't tell you how to connect to a hardware sequencer (you would normally do it with MIDI cables). In fact, it seems from the discussion above, there is no way. That is the whole point of this thread.

Unfortunately for Roland, that will have to be a Kawai. I checked, and the latest LX15 and DP90 no longer have MIDI ports either. Roland have lost the plot.

anotherscott and toddy - thanks for you input.

Having to do everything MIDI via a computer is madness. I was quite keen on the new Rolands before I discovered this omission. They may have saved $2 by removing the MIDI ports, but they'll have to sell a lot of these to make it worthwhile, because they've also lost several hundred $ from the purchase I will now not make.

Yes... what's conceptually missing from that image is that the "sequencer" in that scenario would be a program running on a computer.

If you want to connect directly to a another MIDI keyboard or sound module, yes. The USB out is to a "host" so you will need a computer or special interface in between the USB-only keyboard and "slave" synth.

Probably not an issue for most people but it is for those with a lot of older gear and not into computers/interfaces.

lolatu,

My experience with document/manual writers is much the same as it is with composers/arrangers.
90+ percent of what they do is same old same old with a few updates and edits.
I suspect that the 506 manual came about in that way.

I don't have any Roland keyboards, so I just jumped in at this point on the 504, 506, 508 series.

If anyone wants a REAL answer on this the place to get it is Roland support.
I used them recently to get the factory reset procedure on my U220 (Yeah, rack rat from way back).
Within MINUTES they responded on a 30+ year old product and it was RELEVANT HELP, not the boiler plate "out of warranty" or "no longer supported".

Start here;
http://www.rolandus.com/support/email_support/
Quote the manual at them if you like, but I would hold that until after their first response.

You may have to register, it is free - even on 30 year old products

Strangely Roland did the opposite with FP50. It's predecessor, FP-4F had both midi in/out and midi via USB, in FP-50 they removed the USB type B... which is a pity as well...

Hallelujah! We should remember that Roland have always been ahead of the game on instrument interfaces. In the 1970's and early 80's before MIDI got off the ground, they had their in-house interface called DCB (there was even one on the Juno 60 - a mid 80's synth) and that Roland collaborated with Californian based developers such as Dave Smith from Sequential Circuits in the initial phases of MIDI (1978 - 1982).

Physical MIDI sockets might go the way of DCB. But as anotherscott said, MIDI has been a lot more durable than any computer interface system, to date. Imagine we were all stuck with SCSI connectors on the back of our DPs now. And remember what a bright new world SCSI was supposed to have brought us long after MIDI was already pretty long in the tooth?

Hi Guys

I'm dragging this thread up so please excuse me.

I'm not very good at tech stuf and I'm just starting out writing some stuff using Logic on my Mac. I mainly play guitar but I really would like to use my 504 with Logic to add midi tracks.

Is this possible with the connector available or not? If so what cable would I need to buy?

Thanks for your help

I have the HP508. It has both types of USB port. I have only used the device "memory" port, usually with a thumb drive containing audio files for play along, occassionaly with the included wireless adapter for using Piano Partner (V1) appl.

The user guide indicates the to-Host 'computer port" can be used for " SMF data played by MIDI-compatible software that can be sounded by the HP508 or MIDI data transferred between your sequencer software and the HP508 for music production and editing. "

PS - near the beginning of this thread is posted a (broken) link to midi implementation for the 506, which redirects to https://www.roland.com/us/search/site_search/

Search for ' hp508 midi implementation ' turns up several hits including a 45-page PDF V1 dated 2013 covering midi for 504 / 506 / 508

https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/HP508_HP506_HP504_MI.pdf

Thanks. The PDF is pretty detailed and I will file it away for reference once I get things sorted. I'm assuming then I can plug the piano into my mac and use it to created midi files. I looked at the user guide but it isn't terribly helpful. TBH I don't know what SMF files are.

To keep it really basic, do I just buy a cable and plug it in and then I'm good to go?

SMF files are MIDI files. SMF stands for Standard MIDI Format.