Comparison CME WIDI Uhost vs Yamaha UD-BT01

Bluetooth MIDI: Lowest Price versus Premium Solutions

Today, you can find a wide variety of wireless MIDI adapters on the market. These range from cheap remakes to serious fixes. Because the Bluetooth MIDI market is relatively new, it is not always so easy to put the differences in performance and of course price into perspective.

CME provides premium Bluetooth MIDI solutions. This means that our developers are specialized in Bluetooth and MIDI. This is unlike many cheap remakes available from Asia. In most cases, they lack high-quality components necessary for optimal wireless performance and their developers don't know much about MIDI.

Those solutions might work for simple MIDI notes, but you'll run into problems if you need more professional latency and jitter performance. Or if you're working with more challenging MIDI messages, such as MIDI Clock, SysEx, and MPE. Cheap eventually becomes expensive if it doesn't deliver.

Bluetooth MIDI originally developed by Apple and made a standard by the members of the MIDI association. Now if you look at availability worldwide, there are basically three companies that provide promising wireless MIDI adapters over Bluetooth. Namely CME, Roland and Yamaha.

Keep in mind that Bluetooth MIDI is just getting started. There is much more to come in the near future. Therefore, this blog aims to give you a simple overview of the latest USB MIDI to Bluetooth MIDI adapters currently available.

Comparison: CME WIDI Uhost vs Yamaha UD-BT01

Yamaha released their MD-BT01 (DIN-5 MIDI) and UD-BT01 (USB MIDI) solutions in 2015. In fact, it is mainly a modified variant of the products from the small Japanese developer Quicco. As you may understand, Quicco is not so widely available. Yamaha is the industrial giant that can deliver anywhere in the world. That is why we have chosen to compare with Yamaha.

The BT-01 series is based on Bluetooth 4. This is completely different from the current Bluetooth 5. The difference in performance and features between the two versions is just huge. If you look at the MD-BT01, it can best be compared with WIDI Master. This blog is entirely devoted to that.

Due to this difference in Bluetooth version, the current WIDI Uhost can do much more. Most importantly, it can work completely standalone. In contrast, the UD-BT01 always needs a host (such as your computer) in order to work. This is the main reason why the WIDI Uhost is much more versatile in its use cases and better rated in its performance.

View this comparison table to compare!

Comparison: CME WIDI Bud Pro vs Roland WM-1D

In 2020 Roland released their WM-1 series. As with Yamaha, there is a solution for DIN-5 MIDI similar to WIDI Master. The comparison between WIDI Master and WM-1 can be found in this blog.

In addition, the successor of the WIDI Bud was released at the same time as the WIDI Uhost. This one is called the WIDI Bud Pro and contains all the advanced WIDI technology.

While Roland's WM-1D and the WIDI Bud Pro look similar on the outside and both feature the latest BLE 5 technology, there are some distinguishing differences between the two.

First, WIDI technology was created to advance Bluetooth MIDI as the standard for wireless MIDI. Therefore, the intention is to make it available to as many MIDI devices as possible. Both old and new.

This is completely different from the Roland solutions. These are primarily marketed to work with Roland devices. And while that's great and Roland's legacy is well respected, there's more than just Roland.

WIDI Bud Pro works with all Roland Bluetooth MIDI products, but many more. With WIDI, a new standard has arrived and with the care and dedication of the CME development team, steps are being taken. This is different from Roland. Roland is another industry giant. They need smart solutions from others to innovate.....innovations such as WIDI.

Last but not least, WIDI was created together with the community. It is the result of ongoing conversations with people who actually use it. That's why the solutions evolve so quickly. This comparison chart below will show you the difference between two products that launched quite close to each other in the past year.