CME U6MIDI Pro USB MIDI Interface

Easily my favorite MIDI accessory in recent memory, the CME U6MIDI replaced several barely functional, frequently infuriating devices with one diminutive plastic box that works flawlessly. It’s both a convenient PC to MIDI interface and a sophisticated MIDI router.

We have a substantial number of MIDI devices, and while they can be manually plugged together as they’re required, it’s way easier to leave them all connected to each other and route their data in software. Regrettably, dating back to the late Jurassic period – the mid-1980s – MIDI’s network topography is decidedly limited.

The CME U6MIDI features a USB interface to connect it to a computer – and, incidentally, to power it – three MIDI output connectors to drive three synthesizers or other MIDI-compatible sound sources, and three MIDI input connectors, to permit up to three MIDI keyboards, drum pads or instrument controllers to play the aforementioned synths. The latter function is more impressive than it sounds. We’ve had a number of earlier MIDI “combiners” that only worked when they felt like it.

A downloadable Windows application allows the inputs and outputs of the CME U6MIDI to be patched together any way you like. It’s also available for Macintosh. Initially, we just connected everything to everything else and controlled who played what by assigning the devices in question specific MIDI channels. This said, it’s easier to reassign the internal software connections of the CME U6MIDI than it is to drill down through the cryptic user interfaces of most synthesizers to adjust their MIDI channel settings.

In addition to its data routing capabilities, the CME U6MIDI features LEDs to indicate which of its ports are seeing data, a useful diagnostic tool for those occasions when everything doesn’t play as you’d anticipated.

The final grace note of the CME U6MIDI is its price – at about fifty dollars US as of this writing, or $64.99 Canadian, it’s seriously affordable. If you own more than two MIDI synths, it’s arguably essential.