Strymon Nixie Editor

[Archon]

Alright, just want to document to maybe save others the hassle.  I tried for around an hour to get Strymon Nixie to connect to my Big Sky and Time Line pedals through Midi to no avail.  I have 2 mrccs and maybe that is the problem.  my connections were:

remote MRCC:
MRCC 5 out --> Big Sky In
Big Sky Out --> Time Line In
Time Line Out --> MRCC 5 in

main MRCC (connected to PC)
USB ---> PC

ok so then my chain was
Main MRCC:
PC virtual cable 12 to Remote 5

remote MRCC:
5 to Remote PC virtual cable 12


so in theory I should have a connection looping through the pedals from the pc and back to the pc.  

when I tested I saw midi data on each of the paths I described on the MRCCs, but the strymon nixie software just didn't like it I guess.  It would just say no hardware detected.

I made sure again and again that my settings and route were correct but no luck.

So then I tried a Roland UM-ONE cable instead of routing through the 2 MRCCs, and it just worked.

So in this case I think I'm going to bypass the MRCCs and just use the usb cable, it's not worth the hassle.  I also have to ensure this route is set and both mrccs are on, vs just leaving a cable plugged in and it just working.  Also there really is no point of connecting anything else through midi to these pedals anyway, so a direct connection makes sense.

If anyone actually has this setup working through 2 MRCCs, I would be curious, and maybe I'm just not completely understanding routing to a remote pc virtual cable, or maybe the software just doesn't like something about it.  Who knows.

My advice is just use a Roland UM-ONE and save yourself the hassle in this case.

[Jesse Johannesen]

I don't know for sure but it sounds like the issue could be to do with SysEx. From what I understand, the SysEx files can be larger packets and when sent via USB over a certain packet size it can cause problems, these can be avoided usually by adding a small delay between packets, and keeping the packet size to a limit of (I think) 256 bytes. Some software lets you edit those settings but not always.

[Archon]

I don't know for sure but it sounds like the issue could be to do with SysEx. From what I understand, the SysEx files can be larger packets and when sent via USB over a certain packet size it can cause problems, these can be avoided usually by adding a small delay between packets, and keeping the packet size to a limit of (I think) 256 bytes. Some software lets you edit those settings but not always.

interesting.  I suspect this application is super picky.  I don't think it gives any options like that either.  It doesn't even let you specify what midi device for input/output.  It just works or it doesn't.  It is cool but I don't think Strymon put a lot of effort into it.  I suspect most people who use these pedals are guitar players who don't want to bother with it or people who use them as studio tools and just deal with the pedal interface.  I'm happy with my solution.  I have connected a ton of gear and everything else has worked great so far through the mrcc units I have.  

One other thing that tripped me up was connecting a nanosynth, but I didn't know the ouptput acts like a thru and anything passed in goes right through.  That was causing some wonky stuff but then I realized I don't need midi from that thing.  

So some advice I can give is if you don't need midi out of a device, best idea is probably to just not even connect it.  I guess same goes for midi in.