August 21

WIDI Master Experience

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Use Cases: WIDI Master Experience

We started the crowd creation of WIDI Master late December 2019. Together with our community of WIDI Enthusiasts the first member of the WIDI family founds its way. Today we shipped close to 5,000 units worldwide to the first ever users of WIDI. This blog will tell you more about the first WIDI Master experiences from our community members.

Jordan Rudess & WIDI Master

Jordan Rudess has been an ambassador for advanced music technology for decades. Besides developing his very own Geoshred App. Jordan has also been part of the Xkey Air and WIDI tech development. This is what he has to say!

Genki Instruments & WIDI Master

From day 1 we have had support from the Icelandic instrument developer Genki Instruments. Their Wave adds an extra layer to your MIDI instrument via Bluetooth MIDI. It is needless to say that WIDI Master and Genki's Wave complement each other in the finest way.

Linnstrument & WIDI Master

Geert Bevin (Software Engineering Lead at Moog Music Inc.) designed a LinnStrument holder for the Anker PowerCore+ mini that attaches securely to the side of LinnStrument using the strap holders. It allows LinnStrument to be battery powered, and with WIDI Master, makes it possible for LinnStrument to operate fully wirelessly. Check the full post here!

IK Multimedia & WIDI Master

After we started shipping WIDI Master, we got in touch with Italian based IK Multimedia. With their impressive range of products we were keen to work with them to find out more on the compatibility with their innovations. Everything is working excellently with their AXE I/O SOLO and iRig Stomp I/O for guitarist and we are looking forward to connect the UNO series with WIDI Jack. If you are interested you can check the full post here and find out what went wrong in this image...

MorningstarFX & WIDI Master

One of our first supporters during presale were the people behind MorningstarFX. With their impressive range of MIDI based pedals, we were excited to get their opinion. Well, they dedicated an entire blog to it. As a conclusion they mention that WIDI Master definitely makes long MIDI cable runs a thing of the past. Though, on a pedal-board setup, there might not be that much need as all devices are so close to each other. However, the use case for the WIDI Master becomes apparent when connecting the last MIDI Out on your pedal board to your MIDI-enabled amplifier in the backstage, for example. Or having the ability to connect to your computer via Bluetooth without a USB MIDI interface. 

As we always listen to this kind of feedback, it made us consider to develop a guitar pedal specific WIDI model. More about that when the time is right. That said, we strongly advise you to read the full article here!

CityMusic Singapore & WIDI Master

As a Singapore based company, we are closely connected to the retail channels in Singapore. One of the most exciting shops in CityMusic. Of course, the instantly pre ordered WIDI Master. This way they ensured to become one of the first official reviewers. Mike Mayuni did a full video and posted that on their channels. You can see the full post here!

SynthDawg & WIDI Master

As WIDI is our first crowd created product, we monitor carefully what happens in the community. Therewith it is of high relevance to us what people have to say and share about WIDI. From first experience to full videos and blogs. The community is making the difference and eventually will support us to improve our product and focus on future developments. For instance we were tagged by Synthdawg on Instagram and found this full blog and video connecting WIDI Master with Synthstrom's Deluge and the Elektron Digitakt . We strongly suggest to follow Synthdawg. And keep taggin us in any post you make online!

WIDI Master Facebook Group

From day 1 of the crowd creation process we invested in the interaction with our community. We do this via email, social media, Whatsapp and our Facebook Group. Particularly it is in this Facebook Group where the magic happens. It is a place where we get direct feedback on use cases. It allows us to fully focus our limited human resources to solve issues that are relevant to our users. This will lead to more focus and instant improvements on the firmware. You are more than welcome to join the group and start contributing to the world of Bluetooth MIDI and WIDI. Just go here!

To give you more insights on what is going on in this group, let's share some nice posts of our community members with you!

Rémi Balandras

I finally have the live looping setup I was dreaming of! Completely crazy and wireless!

Mike Kent

Mike Kent (Former Chair of the BLE MIDI working group) shared his honest first impression with us. Setup was surprisingly simple, up and running immediately. The intro videos from CME are great, short and simple.

I tried my StudioLogic Sledge controlling Roland JD-Xi for a few minutes. Then tried syncing my JP-08's sequencer to the JD-Xi. It sounded pretty good, but when I swapped to a MIDI Cable for the same to compare, I could hear a slightly tighter sync with the lower latency. A cable is always going to be better; it's an expected limitation of wireless.

Still, I thought it was pretty impressive given what I know of BLE MIDI: I was Chair of the BLE MIDI Working Group so I know the limitations. I tried my StudioLogic Sledge controlling JD-Xi again and ran into problems with hung notes. I switched to a couple of other Rolands controlling the JD-Xi and the problem disappeared. Back to the Sledge and problems returned.

The Sledge is known to have weird MIDI issues, I could not repeat the problem with any other gear. I might put a MIDI monitor on the Sledge to see what it does that might cause this. I've only had about 1/2 hour trying some things so far, busy getting ready for 1 week vacation this week. I look forward to trying it more when I return.

This is a great, permanent addition to my studio. I'll have lots of uses for it.

WIDI Master
Pairoj Vejchapipat

I received my WIDI Masters this afternoon. Thank you for your great product. My setup: Akai EWI 5000 + audio interface Focusrite Clarett 2Pre USB

WIDI Master
‎Chris Hazelwood‎

Received today, notification email sent 7/21. So far have tested on a Nord stage 3 to MacBook Pro. Setup a test patch in Mainstage. No noticeable latency from Nord to Mainstage. Even sent the midi signal back to the Nord and heard to noticeable doubling with the direct signal and the return midi. Turned off local control on the Nord and played the Nord thru Mainstage and back to the Nord with maybe a slight lag but still very playable. (Ie, latency x2 is even playable)

WIDI Master
Casey Govero

Eliminating some cross room cabling to my iPad. A little latency but sounds like its mainly due to post processing (probably from my ext. usb audio module going through cckit). Connected very easily. Cool little product! Going to give it a shot w my mac too.

WIDI Master
Alec Bourne

Nice little surprise this morning. Looks like the WIDI master is working with the Plethora X5. I’d tried this previously with a Quicco unit and it was not able to power it. Perhaps the jump to the next generation has lower power requirements and these can handle the Plethora.

Kevin Holmer

So here’s today’s experiment- and everything worked easily and again, not noticing any latency. Keystation49es has only a usb output, so usb out into Kenton MIDI host box WIDI Master to BT on iPad, with other keyboard connected to iPad thru iRig Pro Duo I/O. Kenton box powers the keyboard. Now to work on my live keyboard stand to add a second keyboard.

WIDI Master
Evan Riley

My shipment arrived in TX this morning. I can confirm both the Synthstrom Audible Deluge and the Dreadbox Typhon work just fine with the Widi Master so far.

WIDI Master
Tony Chan

Happy to received it today! It works fine with my gears: TR88, AX Synth, micron, nanoKEY Studio (BLE)!

WIDI Master
Tom Hunt

I ordered 2 WIDI Masters on March 12, then added a 3rd unit in July right as orders were almost ready for shipment. My order shipped on July 21, with expected delivery by August 18. All 3 WIDI Masters were delivered here in Kansas, USA yesterday, August 13. There was no surprise customs/duty fee assessed to my order. As a saxophonist and wind synth player primarily, my goal all along has been to enable my wind controllers to be played wirelessly.

Equipment:
Controller 1 - Akai EWI USB, Yamaha UD-BT01, generic USB power brick that powers both.
Controller 2 - Yamaha WX5, Widi Master in MIDI out (the WX5 has no MIDI in; it's just a controller), powered by batteries in the WX5.
Synths - Yamaha VL70-m & Roland XV-2020. WIDI Master in/out to the VL-70m, shared signal via MIDI cable from the Thru of the VL-70m to the In of the XV-2020.
Audio out from each box to separate mixer channels.
Computer/software synth: MacBook running the Akai EWI USB program, which can be used with any MIDI device.

I did use the app (yay, Android got the jump on iOS for once!) to make sure firmware was updated before testing.

Results:
Solid signal, little noticeable latency (about as long as takes for a saxophone reed to respond). Both controllers work well; the UD-BT01 & WIDI Master play very well together, as does the Avatar BM-A01 adapter I had been using on the WX5.

Haven't yet been able to test signal distance, as I'm in a small studio.

Very, very pleased so far!

WIDI Master
Conclusion

We are delighted that WIDI Master found such a wide range of users and enthusiasts. It is great to see how the first user experiences find their way. Of course, not everything is perfect. We had to do some fast firmware upgrades to ensure compatibility with Yamaha MD-BT01 and Roland AX BLE MIDI devices. That is part of the deal when crowd creating and moving from concept to delivered product within 8 months. Check out the support page to learn more.

That said, the more we receive feedback from our community, the better we can improve the technology, the recent firmware, future features and of course the next members of the WIDI family

Be sure to join our group and start contributing! You can order WIDI Master today and we started with WIDI Jack already. After this we will move to WIDI Uhost.

For now, check out this open source WIDI compatibility list. It shows the results of tests by all of our community members. If you have a MIDI instrument to add, please feel welcome to do so!

It is the community of WIDI enthusiasts that creates the future of BLE MIDI.


Tags

customer care, WIDI


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