MIDI thru button – DOH!

Sound of heel of Kathy’s hand striking forehead…

I ordered a MOTU FastLane-USB MIDI adapter so that I could use my venerable Roland ep-7 keyboard with Finale 2006 on my G4 desktop after beating to infinity that I couldn’t get the PowerBook 540 serial port to play nice with MIDI devices. It was sort of an advance reward for finishing taxes.

So, I attached the new equipment to the newer computer and, NO LUCK. So, I let it go until after Easter. Today I fired up the computer again after the redness of my exposed skin convinced me I needed a break from fresh air and sunshine. I didn’t buy a USB hub, so had used the keyboard USB port where I usually attach the Canon S110 camera. I discovered quickly that if the camera cable is attached instead, the LEDs on the interface don’t light!

After resolving that, still no luck. Then as I was staring despondently at the green LED flickering as nothing happened, my eye was drawn to the little black button with the letters THRU impressed into the smoke plastic case over it. Hmmmm.

Sure enough, it was depressed, probably from being packed or perhaps I did it while attaching cables. Folks, this is a feature not a bug! The music just poured out of the keyboard speakers and I could use it to input notes.

Phew, that was making me crazy.

The clouds have rolled in and I suspect the rain we were promised today will soon come. Need to get the seedlings in and unhook the modem just in case there is lightning.

About Kathy

Perl, MySQL, CGI scripting, web design, graphics following careers as an analytical chemist and educator, then in IT as a database administrator (DBA), programmer, and server administrator. Diagnosed with Mitochondrial Myopathy in 1997.
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