MIDI cable solution for GCP

Q & A for building and interfacing your rack gear with Ground Control Pro and GCX-based systems.
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peepee
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:19 am

MIDI cable solution for GCP

Post by peepee »

Wondering if anyone can help me...
I have the GCX in a rack and the GCP permanently fixed to a large-ish pedal board. However, despite the size of the pedalboard, the standard MIDI cable (ie. 20ft long with straight ends) occasionally gets knocked out of the back of the GCP at small gigs, usually by our very animated singer. This is obviously a pain in the neck while I'm playing, but worse than that, could damage the GCP MIDI socket.
Also, I leave the MIDI cable permanently fixed at the GCX end and just roll it up and stuff it into the back of the rack when I pack away, which is not ideal.
As a solution to both problems, I'd like to find a short MIDI cable (6" long, say) with a right angle male connector on one end and a female socket on the other. This would tuck the cable out of the way and allow me to leave it permanently fixed to the GCP. I'm thinking I could have another one permanently fixed to the GCX at the other end. I could then just plug in the long cable when I set up.
Does anyone know where I could get MIDI cables like this? I'm in the UK.
Or does anyone with the same problem have a better solution?

nyteowl
Posts: 1389
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:53 am

Re: MIDI cable solution for GCP

Post by nyteowl »

peepee wrote:Wondering if anyone can help me...
I have the GCX in a rack and the GCP permanently fixed to a large-ish pedal board. However, despite the size of the pedalboard, the standard MIDI cable (ie. 20ft long with straight ends) occasionally gets knocked out of the back of the GCP at small gigs, usually by our very animated singer. This is obviously a pain in the neck while I'm playing, but worse than that, could damage the GCP MIDI socket.
Also, I leave the MIDI cable permanently fixed at the GCX end and just roll it up and stuff it into the back of the rack when I pack away, which is not ideal.
As a solution to both problems, I'd like to find a short MIDI cable (6" long, say) with a right angle male connector on one end and a female socket on the other. This would tuck the cable out of the way and allow me to leave it permanently fixed to the GCP. I'm thinking I could have another one permanently fixed to the GCX at the other end. I could then just plug in the long cable when I set up.
Does anyone know where I could get MIDI cables like this? I'm in the UK.
Or does anyone with the same problem have a better solution?
I don't see why shipping to the UK would be a problem, but I've been very satisfied with the MIDI cables I've purchased from guitar-cable.com. On the page I've linked to, from what you've described, you would want a MIDI1RS-XX for the short cable with the Right Angle plug and a MIDI1MF-XX for the long cable with a female plug on one end, where XX equals the custom cable length you specify. By the way, I bought a 10' MIDI1RS a few years ago, and if you happen to order the wrong right angle pin orientation by mistake, it is quite easy to rotate the pins to the proper orientation. I've used this cable with a few different MIDI devices and have rotated the pins a number of times without any problems.

Hope this helps...
For Sale: Original DMC GCX in Excellent Condition ($275) and a far more versatile SoundSculpture GL also in Excellent Condition ($1750). Free CONUS Shipping.

peepee
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:19 am

Re: MIDI cable solution for GCP

Post by peepee »

Perfect! That's exactly what I'm looking for. Very much appreciated, thank you!

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