Midi Cable Length

[scottburrow]

What is the maximum length that a midi cable can be to connect between the Ground control Pro and GCX? The reason I ask is that my equipment is usually backstage and I might need a 100ft or longer cable to the front of the stage I might be exaggerating a bit, but it is a long way. For audio we use Radial SGI's to send through the floors snake to behind the stage, is there any product that does this for midi? This might not be the right place for my question, but I'm getting my Ground control pro/gcx the end of this week or the beginning of next so I'm trying to tie up my loose ends. Thanks in advance for the answer.

[JohnClark]

There is a general rule about this that I picked up sometime but I dont know when or where... It is my understanding that you are usually good for about 50 feet for a MIDI run. After that you should be using MIDI buffers to drive the extra length.

It is unlikely that the phantom power is going to be stable at that length. The most efficient power solution in this case would be to power the Ground Control Pro directly out on the floor.

[scottburrow]

Thanks John. Do you know of any midi buffers off the top of your head, that might work? I need to go about 100ft.

[JohnClark]

As you may well imagine there isn't a huge market for a purpose built device like this, but I would think that in reality any powered MIDI device would work as a MIDI buffer amp for this application.
Mostly I am just guessing so perhaps this will all be edited later by yours truly to make it look like I knew what I was talking about all along You never can tell!

[scottburrow]

John, for reference purposes, I bought 4 25ft (100ft) midi cables with 3 midi couplers and everything still works perfectly, it powers it no problem. I figured if I bought in 25ft increments I could just use what I need.