THE USB CABLE IS TOO DAMN SHORT!

Most manufacturers of MIDI gear include a USB cable that is around 60 inches long.

(For those unaware, MIDI-over-USB is the standard today. Meaning, a lot of MIDI gear does NOT use MIDI cables at all, they use a USB cable)

And while 60 inches can be fine if you’re using a laptop close to the MIDI Keyboard, it’s not always long enough if your computer is on the floor, on a shelf, you have a standing desk, or you have your gear in a different location.

We’re focusing on the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A49 in this video (below), but these tips are applicable to a lot of other gear as well, like the PreSonus Atom for example.

If the included 60 inch USB cable for the A49 isn’t long enough, you have a couple of options.

You could get a standard USB extension cable like this if you prefer.

But I like to get completely new cable.

And what you are looking for is a USB type A, to USB type B cable. Type B is port on the MIDI keyboard, and type A is what you probably recognize as the USB ports on your computer. (see video if you don’t know what these look like)

These cables are often called ‘Printer cables’ or ‘data cables’ as well.

This is the cable we’ll use.

One thing you might notice about the included cable is that it includes a ferrite bead or EMI filter on the cable. And these just help to suppress electronic noise or interference.

You’ll notice that the cable we are using does not include the ferrite choke, and in this case, it’s probably not necessary, but you can always grab a pack of Ferrite beads and install them on any cable that you want.

Which is what we’ll do.

And that’s it.

Now we have a 10ft USB cable and we’re able to move our Komplete Kontrol around where ever we need it.

And everything works exactly the same as it did before.

So if you’re looking for a longer cable for your A49 or similar MIDI gear, go check these out.

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