FAQ'S
As this is only a small part of my life, time is precious, therefore I have prepared the following Frequently Asked Questions
GENERAL
Q. What are your opening hours?
A. I am open 09:00 to 17:00 GMT throughout the year, excluding holidays. Messages received after 6pm will usually be responded to next day.
Q. Can I collect in person?
A. Mindburner MIDI Devices are internet mail order only sorry.
Q. I want to re-sell your products/work with you on design & marketing.
A. Sorry this is a small enterprise that I prefer to currently pursue alone thanks.
Q. Can I get a device in a colour not listed in your store?
A. This may be possible but it make take a few weeks to get the new colour ordered, and there may be an extra charge.
Q. Are you VAT registered, can I claim it back?
A. Sorry no due to the small scale of this enterprise.
Q. How can I be sure you are a reliable seller?
A. I take pride in my products and really strive to be the best online shopkeeper I can be. I have been doing this for some time now and have a good reputation.
Q. Can you send me your data files and device plans?
A. I'm afraid not for obvious reasons.
Q. The device I ordered is really not my thing or it's not what I though I needed, Can I return it?
A. In the unlikely even you wish to return something, yes of course you can. You will need to pay return postage. Provided the returned device is complete and in good condition, I will reimburse you.
Q. I Bought an item 2 years ago, can I trade it in for a bigger version?
A. Sorry I don't offer this service.
Q. Do you fix synths or offer tutorials?
A. Not really, I’m not a synth tech but can fit midi kits to old synths like Korgs, Rolands etc, depending on time. Local only. There are plenty of techs out there. Sorry no other services offered.
SHIPPING/CUSTOM CHARGES
Q. Do you ship outside of Europe?
A. Yes I have started again. I have to use Fedex or UPS, cost is approximately £39 for up to 750g.
Q. I'm the UK, do I have to pay customs charges?
A. No, none.
Q. I'm in the EU, do I have to pay customs charges?
A. Possibly. Northern Ireland is currently in the EU Customs Union.
Some EU destinations like German post (DHL) for some reason can have a problem with this, so there may be charges due to their lack of cooperation post Brexit.
Q. I'm in Australia, what's the shipping ETA?
A. I now ship to NZ/Australia but use fedex/UPS. ETS is usally 5-7 days
Q. I need something really urgently, can you ship priority FedEx etc?
A. Possibly but it is generally quite expensive.
Q. I was out when the parcel arrived and didn't collect it, now it's been returned. Can you resend?
A. Yes sure but I will have charge for the postage to send it out again. If you would like a refund, That's fine but I cannot refund the postage due to the original failure to collect the package. If there's a custom charge on the package, i'm afraid that is out of my hands.
MIDI
Q. Can you message/phone me to discuss my MIDI setup?
A. I don't do this full time and just have not the time to call i'm afraid, rather I use the message feature, which is for the the exclusive discussion about Mindburner MIDI products.
Q. I saw a device some time back but it's no longer listed?
A. Here is a list of legacy devices no longer sold.
Q. Why not do a huge MIDI merge device?
A. Merging many streams is not an easy task to to do right. Merging can result in MIDI delays and possible slowdown on a slow protocol like MIDI.
Q. How fast are your devices?
A. I use fast opto isolators in my designs which will have a very minimal impact on your realworld MIDI flow.
Q. Can I plug one MIDI thru device into another to give more thrus?
A. Sure this should work fine within reason. Like a 5 to a 7. The second device will add effectively nothing to the signal flow.
Q. I'm new to MIDI are there any guides?
A. I have started doing just that 'here' Check online and in forums like Modwiggler etc.
MIDI connection help 'here'
MIDI thru typical setup diagram 'here'
Q. Do you sell kits?
A. No sorry just fully assembled products.
Q. Do you do custom jobs and projects?
A. Generally no. It just depends how busy I am and the nature of the project. I can usually modify one of my devices, but large new projects that take lots of work with limited market, I generally need to pass on. Also I am not really a coder so complex MIDI routing is not my thing.
Q. Do you sell a MIDI host?
A. I did, however due to the ever growing amount of USB keyboards designed for a computer, it became impossible to try every one and guarantee compatibility so I retired this device.
Q. I've heard about 'MIDI power'?
A. MIDI is a current loop and some devices can cheat by drawing a little power from the MIDI signal and using it to power say a MIDI thru device or similar, avoiding the need for an external power supply. A self powered receiving device, like my 4 way device can take advantage of the slight current difference. In essence it can steal a little of the MIDI signal to drive it's electronics' Synths and the like are not like this and have their own internal power supplied for their MIDI electronics.
MASTER CLOCK
Q. How does the clock signal work on Your master clock unit?
A. Timing clock is sent all the time. Pressing encoder will send a start, then if pressed again, a stop command. This starts and stops any sequences on receiving synths or drum machines. The background timing signal is continually sent so that the attached synths can keep in time if started again. Normally you won't notice it as it's the start and stop commands that really drive the synths.
POWER
Q. Can I use a mobile phone charger as a 5v power source?
A. Yes any decent quality 5v mains USB charger of 1A or more should work fine.
Q. Can I use a mobile phone power bank to power devices?
A.Usually no. Phone power banks are 'smart' and know when a low current device is plugged in, so they switch off and are therefore unsuitable. This is a powerbank problem (feature?) and not a specific MIDI problem. If your powerbank has dual USB sockets, you can try 'loading' the powerbank say with a USB light or another synth, that may keep the powerbank from shutting off. USB smart powerbank 'keep alive' devices are also available. There are also apparently some powerbanks that have an 'always on' feature that may not shut down or a mode that can be enabled. I have not tried these so can't comment further.
See here for more:
MIDI SWITCH OR THRU?
The switch is great for sending MIDI to any of the 2-5 connected slave synths. It's output 1 OR 2 OR 3 etc rather than multiple outputs at the same time. The main drawback of this is that if your MIDI keyboard has a sequencer that can handle multiple MIDI channels then only 1 synth will really play at a time. The switches advantage is that it can be used to select say between 2 completely different sets of keyboards. Like setup A or setup B. E.g. Use a master keyboard and switch to send MIDI to an old atari sequencer OR a more modern DAW.
The thru duplicates notes and or sequences from your master keyboard...and copies them to all the connected synths. So if your keyboard can change MIDI channels you could use that to select which synth is currently playing by assigning a different MIDI channel to your connected synths. Also a sequencer on the master or DAW could maybe play several of the synths at once with a track allocated to the relevant synth's MIDI channel.
