Roland have released two new MIDI dongles that they say combine the convenience of wireless with latency to rival traditional cabling. The WM-1 features two 5-pin DIN sockets and is designed to occupy the MIDI In and Out ports on traditional electronic instruments. It runs on two AAA batteries, and transmits and receives MIDI data via Bluetooth to your computer, phone or tablet.
The WM-1D, meanwhile, adds BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) connectivity to any computer that doesn't already have it, letting you hook up non-BLE equipped computers to the WM-1.
The WM-1/WM-1D can operate in two modes: Standard, in which up to four MIDI instruments can transmit and receive data to a single WM-1D, or Fast mode, which allows one instrument at a time to send and receive MIDI with latency as low as 3ms.
Priced at $69.99 and $79.99 for the WM-1 and WM-1D respectively, the system should be available from next month.
