Two Yamaha MD-BT01 at the same time?

martynw2000 · October 15, 2023, 08:49:35 AM

Hi, new member here, and sorry if this question has already been asked. I did a search but couldn't find the exact answer.

Being fairly technically challenged as an "older" musician, I was wondering if it's possible to connect two Yamaha MD-BT01's at the same time?

For example, I have a Roland keyboard and a Roland Guitar effects pedal which both have midi ports in and out. What I want to do is tap the name of the song in BandHelper and have both the keyboard and the guitar effect change to the correct patches. This may be a very basic thing, and everyone will probably be shouting "of course you can do that!" - but before I spend money on buying the wireless kit, I wanted to check first to see if it would work this way.

My iPad is a 2022 iPad pro, so I'm guessing that will also have no problems connecting to Bluetooth midi devices.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

arlo · October 15, 2023, 07:28:20 PM

I don't have two to try it with myself, but I'm pretty sure this will work like you want it to. Unless someone else has direct experience with this, I would suggest buying them from a place that accepts returns and give it a try.

davelson · October 15, 2023, 08:57:42 PM

I connect a WIDI BT controller and a Yamaha MDBT01 at the same time with no issues... can't see why you couldn't do same with 2 BT01's

Dave

martynw2000 · October 16, 2023, 02:45:43 AM

Thanks, I have two on order from Amazon, I'll give it a go.

Thanks for your help

JerryK · October 27, 2023, 04:17:47 PM

Quote from: martynw2000 on October 16, 2023, 02:45:43 AM
Thanks, I have two on order from Amazon, I'll give it a go.

How did it go?

martynw2000 · October 28, 2023, 02:43:45 AM

Unfortunatley I have since found out that I can't change my keyboard's patches using MIDI. It's about the only keyboard Roland make that you can't do that with, which is very odd and annoying.

So I wasn't able to test using two MD-BT01's at the same time, and returned one of them. I'm fairly sure it would have worked though with a different keyboard.

Zionplayer · October 29, 2023, 08:42:17 AM

Sorry for chiming in late - I do concurrently use 2 BT01's with my 2022 iPad so that's no problem for BH, one on my guitar unit and one on my mixing console. Select a song on my SetList, automatically changes my guitar patch and turns on or off reverb mute on the board depending.

And I don't doubt your research and conclusion, but a Roland keyboard that has a built in midi connection but won't change patches or setting is really odd for sure. Must be an older keyboard.

martynw2000 · October 29, 2023, 02:56:26 PM

It's a Roland VR-09, which has been around for maybe 15 years I guess. I found out that it uses sysex for Midi, and I have tried to do some research on figuring that out, but so far no luck. I understand it's a string of hex values needed, and I know what most of them do, but so far I haven't been able to send any messages that do anything.

I have even tried using the "midi learn" function in bandhelper to discover the codes. I can make a connection, turn on midi learn, and then press the button that selects a registration, and that gives me about 15 sysex messages on the screen. I have tried copying those messages into a midi preset, but alas.. nothing happens.