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I have read in several places that if you want to connect a MIDI TRS-A connection to another TRS-A connection, then it's possible to use a standard/straight 3.5mm stereo audio cable.
However, this doesn't make sense to me because that would mean that the two "source" connections are connected together and the two "sink" connections are connected together. Surely, these need to be swapped over in the cable? I would expect a straight cable to work if connecting a TRS-A to a TRS-B but not TRS-A to TRS-A (or TRS-B to TRS-B).
TRS-A cables that I have seen for sale are also sometimes (often?) labelled as "also suitable for audio" which suggests it's a straight cable. I'm very confused.
There are countless wiring diagrams on the web describing how to wire a TRS plug to a DIN plug, but any information at all on TRS to TRS seems to be very thin on the ground
Can anyone enlighten me please?
Posted : 05/12/2025 3:43 am
Generally speaking, a MIDI device will have distinct IN and OUT/Thru jacks (ie, it is not like a network or USB jack... one jack does not handle both directions), so the IN jack and the OUT jack expect things on the same pins. Using a "crossover" if you have two A or two B devices will make the connection fail. And you always need to be connecting the OUT of one to the IN of the other. If one device was A and the other was B, THEN you would want a cable that swaps the tip and ring, though personally I have not seen one. However, there are devices you can put in between that have multiple re-configurable jacks for connecting the various types without having to get custom cables.
(Note that I don't actually own any MIDI hardware, I only work with software, but this info is all true to the best of my understanding)
Posted : 12/12/2025 9:49 pm
