Norns Shield - USB and Midi Connectivity Question [SOLVED]

#1

I am new to the Norns / Monome platforms and just built a rpi3 Norns with the DIY shield.

I am starting to play around with it and I’d like to use a software based midi keyboard with it, but it doesn’t appear that it appears as a midi device when connected with the micro-usb cable to the RPI.

Is there a way for the shield to receive midi notes over the computer usb connection? What would be the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks.

#2

I believe you’d need something like this!

2host - a DIY USBMIDI host-to-host adapter

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#4

What about if I want to connect it to a common midi bus, is there a solution to midi-in like a regular desktop synth?

My use-case specifically is wanting to hook my Norns shield to a midi-splitter which is fed midi signals by my Arturia beatstep-pro. the BSP provides midi signals on three midi channels for each of my instrument, and I want to use the Norns with the drumroom patch on the drum channel.

It would appear that the norns by default is a midi-host and wants to see a midi-device such as the BSP connected by the USB, but I’m hoping there is a way for it to receive midi signals as a device through a midi connection of some type. Would a usb-midi cable offer this on the Norns platform?

Thanks

#5

I’ve been using my old Midiman Midisport 2x2 with my Norns Shield, sending and receiving MIDI over one of the Pi USB ports.

#6

Yep, using a usb midi interface would be fine for MIDI in. (The usb-midi cables with a bulge in them are, basically, 1-in 1-out interfaces in a cable format).

The issue is not about MIDI but about USB: MIDI has no hosts/devices, it’s pretty dumb. But USB very much has a host/client structure, and norns is a MIDI host and that’s that. So you can’t just connect another host - your computer - to it directly. The 2host is a pair of clients that talk to one another, and thus connect 2 hosts.

But you’d equally be fine using a hardware MIDI cable going into a MIDI interface on the norns. So, in your BSP example, the BSP midi goes into the splitter - I presume a hardware THRU-type splitter - and then you take one cable into the IN of a USB midi interface/cable on norns. Then just make sure that the norns patch in question is receiving on the correct midi channel.

#7

Great answer thanks!