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I'm a complete music & MIDI novice (though an experienced computer person). We just purchased a Casio Privia PX-310 keyboard, and a USB MIDI interface cable.

We have successfully tested both MIDI-in & -out, but are experiencing an odd problem: Dropped notes on the MIDI-in cable.

That is, when we press and release a key on the PX-310, it usually sends out a "note on" & "note off" message via the MIDI-in cable. However, occasionally (perhaps 10%-20% of the time) it drops an "on" or "off" message (sometimes both, but much more rarely). (This is as received by the computer, of course.)

The MIDI-out cable (i.e., input to the keyboard) works flawlessly.

Just to be sure, we have tried this on 2 different computers, running 2 different Windows OSs, with the same results.

Is the problem with the cable, or the keyboard? Or is there no way to know, without trying a new cable or keyboard?

TIA,

Ken

In case anyone else encounters this same problem in the future, I'll answer my own question. In this case, it was the cable.

The cable is from Voyetra / Turtle Beach -- the one that comes in their "Teach Me Piano Kit". It turned out that just this past Monday they posted a new firmware update, and that update fixed the problem! (Of course, cables don't usually have firmware, but since this one is actually a MIDI interface built into the cable, it does.)

Voyetra support both rocks & sucks. There's no phone support available at all, only email & fax. My email has so far gone unanswered, but perhaps they were closed on Friday. But it's great that they were able to fix this problem and post a fix on their site. I have no idea if this is specific to the new Previas or not, as their readme didn't say.

Ken

EDIT - Voyetra support emailed me today (Monday). They correctly responded that the patch will fix the problem I encountered, so their support doesn't suck. It still isn't great that they don't have phone support, but relatively fast & accurate email support is still better than what some companies provide.

This is good news. Thanks for posting this. Seems these types of cables can be hard to work with.

The problem seems to be somewhere between the keyboard and the chair

Just kidding.