midiplus MIDI 16x16 MIDI Interface

I now have 5 of these units. Yes, the rack spacing is non standard for the US. Like others reported, I just use two holes as well and they hold without a problem. I just view the space they leave before the next rack unit can be mounted as an additional heat vent. The install is nothing but attaching to a USB port as they are class compliant for Win10/11. No drivers to install. I have one attached to a BomeBox and there was no problem with this working as well.The only caveat is that as a 16 port unit, their power draw via USB is not handled well by tiny NUCs like the Micro Ace etc. Other than the BomeBox, the rest are attached to either Lenovo or HP mini PCs.

I needed a 16 x 16 USB MIDI interface with all connection on the rear panel. My equipment is rack mounted and front connections are useless. I was therefore pleased to see this product for sale. It appears to be the only such product on the market, although it is sold under two different brand names. However, the Chinese manufacturer clearly does not understand the concept of NEMA rack specifications. I could see that that the unit was more than 1U (1.75") in height so I assumed it was the next size up, i.e., 2U (3.5"). But no, the unit is a completely non-standard 1.5U in height. That means that there will be an open gap of 7/8" above or below the unit when rack mounted. Further, the location of the rack ear mounting holes will not allow it to be mounted to standard NEMA rack rails without modifying the sheet metal. Regardless of the enclosure size, the front panel should have been a standard 2U with standard mounting hole locations. I am in a position to have some sheet metal fabrication capabilities so I guess I can mill out the mounting holes to allow it to be rack mounted and to fabricate a custom blank panel to fill the gap, but jeez. Even if it works perfectly, it still only deserves one star for such nonsense. Unless you are prepared to start cutting metal don't buy this product if rack mounting is intended. I did connect the unit via USB to a Windows 10 PC. The MIDI ports were recognized after the PC was rebooted. There is a large obnoxiously bright white LED on the front panel that indicates USB connection. Now that I know it is functioning it is time to take it to the workshop to mill out two of the rack ear mounting holes to allow it to be rack mounted. If there were any other product with the 16 x 16 MIDI i/O capabilities I would have returned it. Late note: I have modified the unit to fit into my equipment rack. All four rack ear holes had to be nibbled out with a sheet metal punch. The top holes needed to be enlarged about 0.1" upward and the bottom holes needed to be enlarged about 0.1" downward. That means the hole centers are off by nearly 1/4" for mounting in a NEMA standard rack.

This unit is exactly what I was hoping for. Nothing fancy and does the job. Only 4 stars because it wasn't easy to get it to work in my system. This unit HATES USB hubs. I had to experiment with 5 different hubs to get it to work. It seemed to like older simpler hubs best. Finally got it to work as advertised. I'll mention the non-standard rack spacing like all the other reviews. Not a big deal. It leaves 7/8" empty space in your rack. I can live with that. In the end, it works great, price was good compared to other units with less MIDI ins and outs than this one.

The MidiPlus 16x16 SHOULD be a great unit, and is at a great price here on Amazon. True, the rack mount holes are non-standard. I didn't mind that too much. Because I only had 1 empty rack space, I mounted it onto the side of my wooden gear rack (see picture) using easily obtainable hardware, and for me that worked fine. However, in use, I was getting inexplicable MIDI ghost notes. Notes were getting triggered that I definitely did NOT play, notes which would sustain "to infinity". I changed master keyboard, same issue. I tried to find tech support somewhere to no avail (the unfortunate aspect of buying gear on Amazon). The Amazon support feature immediately offers a return, so I did. I noticed that the unit I received was not new, it had been used and returned, as someone had touched up surface dings with a sharpie. Honestly, if it had worked I wouldn't have minded that either. I read on a gear thread somewhere that there were some units made that had defective parts and perhaps this is one of them. If you want to try my side-mount solution for one of these, here are the brackets I used (along with some stainless steel bolts, nylon washers and lock nuts). https://www.amazon.com/National-Hardware-N351-463-Black-Corner/dp/B016TQOPPO