Connecting a DIN MIDI mixer via an audio / MIDI interface
Older mixers and many small-format boards have only 5-pin DIN MIDI ports — no USB. To talk to them from an iPad, iPhone, or Mac, you bridge through a USB audio / MIDI interface that has DIN MIDI in/out.
What you need
- A mixer with a 5-pin DIN MIDI input.
- An iPad, iPhone, or Mac.
- A USB audio / MIDI interface with DIN MIDI ports. Common choices include Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 / 4i4 / 8i6 / 18i20, M-Audio M-Track, MOTU UltraLite / 828, and RME Babyface — most pro-audio interfaces in that price range include MIDI in/out.
- USB cable for your device to the interface (plus a Camera Adapter on Lightning iPads if needed).
- A 5-pin DIN MIDI cable from the interface's MIDI Out to the mixer's MIDI In.
How to connect
- Connect the audio / MIDI interface to your device via USB.
- Connect a MIDI cable from the interface's MIDI Out to the mixer's MIDI In.
- Power on the mixer.
- In ShowPlayer Pro, open MIDI Interface from the menu and select the interface. The MIDI port on the interface acts as ShowPlayer's MIDI output.
- Pick the Board Profile that matches your mixer — see below.
Board profile
When you connect a mixer through a generic audio / MIDI interface, ShowPlayer Pro recognizes the interface but can't tell which board is downstream on the DIN cable. The MIDI Interface screen surfaces a Board Profile selector for exactly this case: pick the mixer that's actually wired in, and ShowPlayer Pro applies the correct mute controller number, polarity, and mic-1 mapping automatically.
If your board is not listed, select Generic and set the device-specific values yourself:
- Find the MIDI Controller number used for channel mutes in your board's documentation and enter it in the Mute Controller # row.
- Tap Test Mic 1. If the controller number is correct, this should toggle mute on input channel 1 of the board.
- If mute is inverted (Test Mic 1 unmutes instead of mutes), flip the Mute Polarity switch in Device Settings.
- Still stuck? Contact support — we're eager to help and to build a specific profile for your board so it works out of the box for everyone next time.
Notes
- MIDI Out is all you need. ShowPlayer Pro sends MIDI to the mixer; nothing flows back. Any interface with a MIDI Out port will work.
- Not every interface has MIDI ports. Compact interfaces sometimes omit them. Confirm before buying.
- Latency through USB-MIDI is small (a few milliseconds) and inaudible for mute commands. Don't worry about it.
- Mix and match. The interface and the mixer don't need to be from the same manufacturer. A Focusrite Scarlett driving a Yamaha mixer, an M-Audio M-Track driving a Roland board — DIN MIDI is a universal standard.