Yamaha Wireless USB to Host MIDI Adapter

Product Description

Simple and easy wireless connection of instruments with a USB to host terminal to iOS devices and Mac makes it easy to use a wide range of music applications wirelessly for even more enjoyable performing and composing. [Read more]

Top Reviews

Works Great, With One Caveat for Apple Users.
by Jeffitz (4 out of 5 stars)
March 3, 2017

I bought this for use with my Yamaha CLP-585 and third-party midi apps. It appears to have very low latency and midi notes are recognized immediately by all the apps I've used on my iPad.

There is one slight little hitch when used with my iPhone and iPad however; it's not immediately recognized as a bluetooth device by the iPhone and iPad (in Bluetooth Settings), nor by some of the apps I want to use it with. What this means is that it's necessary to connect to the MD-BT01 via another midi bluetooth app that can find it and then let it run in the background (I use midimittr). Doing this makes it accessible to midi apps (including the iPhone and iPad) that cannot otherwise find it directly. Used in this way it works flawlessly.
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Worked for me...
by Wayne Hom (5 out of 5 stars)
November 22, 2016

Using this UD-BT01 with a Yamaha DGX-660 and iPad mini 2. At first, plugged in to USB-to-Host jack with included usb cable, plugged in to spare AppleiPhone usb charger for power. Tried connecting through stock Bluetooth settings, but could not see device to connect to. Repeated with two other Apple devices, but same problem. Could not see the device. I saw JimE say he used MidiMittr from AppStore to connect, so I downloaded the app, and it saw the UD-BT01 and connected. Now we are able to use the iPad mini 2 with our music learning apps, Piano Adventures. We also tried some Yamaha apps and they worked fine with excellent two way midi communications. We did not detect any lag.

Update:11/26/2016

Found the Yamaha FAQ which tells you to install the Yamaha Visual Performer app and use that to connect to the UB-BT01, then the other MIDI apps will see it on your iPhone and iPad.
[...]

And a good assortment of Yamaha apps available too.
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Works well and with low latency, but not exactly "plug and play"
by StormJH1,Top Contributor: Guitars (4 out of 5 stars)
April 11, 2018

The Yamaha MD-BT01 is a well-engineered product that works mostly as advertised, with the exception that you have to jump through a few hoops to get it working at all on iOS device. I should start out by saying that this a $50 Bluetooth adapter that functionally performs the same task as a $10 5-pin DIN MIDI cable...it just does it wirelessly. Therefore, I consider it more of a convenience item than a true necessity. One exception to that argument might be that you can have several of them running at once (five, I believe). So you could imagine having an interface with only 1 MIDI connections, and now you could have MIDI running (wirelessly) to several different hardware units, which is pretty cool.

The two important "issues" for you to be aware of before buying the MD-BT01 are: (1) It requires MIDI power and both the IN and OUT jacks; and (2) iOS Bluetooth doesn't recognize it natively, so Yamaha has engineered a software workaround. The device runs off the power of the hardware you plug it into IF your device offers MIDI power. There are more units than you'd think that do not have MIDI power. This would include all of the Korg Volca series, which only has a MIDI in jack. By contrast, the Korg Minilogue and Roland Boutique series do provide MIDI power to run the device.

Once powered up, you can't just go to your Bluetooth menu in "Settings" and find the MD-BT01. You have download Yamaha's utility app to find the device and connect to it. You can also rename the unit or do firmware updates from that utility. As several reviewers have pointed out, I think you also have to identify it as a MIDI destination in an app that supports it. There are several of these, but I found that if I skipped this step, I couldn't just load up a sequencer app (like Inifinite Looper or Xequence) and make the connection. But once it works, it generally works.

I should point out that my primary concern prior to buying the device - latency - really isn't much of an issue at all. The latency seems pretty minimal, and if you're just using the MIDI connection for sequencing or to mess with control parameters on a synth, it's basically a non-factor anyway.

The device is a little bulky, and maybe a little expensive for what it does. I suspect that this is the type of device that will seem archaic in 5-10 years, but then again, MIDI is still with us, and has been since around 1983. The primary reason I like and wanted the MD-BT01 is to connect my iPhone or iPad to a hardware synth with needing to use a MIDI interface. If you're willing to deal with a few steps along the way, it works pretty well for that objective.
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Read this - instructions on connecting
by thomas e dolan (4 out of 5 stars)
February 14, 2018

I'm removing one star because the documentation for connecting to iOS is not really accurate. You need to download a midi controller app from the App Store - for example the "Yamaha digital piano controller" app and use that app to connect the Bluetooth. The device will not be discoverable in standard Bluetooth settings on your iOS device. For what it's worth, you need to go to settings, information within the Yamaha app mentioned above to connect a Bluetooth midi device.

Once you're connected it's great. But minus one star for documentation gaps.
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Works Perfectly!
by P. Geissler (5 out of 5 stars)
July 24, 2017

So very happy with this purchase!!

I used it to connect my aKia EWI-USB wirelessly to my computer. In the photo, you will see it on the end of a foot long USB cable with a portable cell phone charger on the end. I plugged a CME WIDI BUD into my computer as the receiver. Works perfectly!

This product exceeded my expectations! Best purchase I have made all year!
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Adds 5ms latency compared to a MIDI cable . Too much for me!
by Peter George Deneff (1 out of 5 stars)
May 17, 2018

I gave it two stars because although it is a really handy and neat idea, it actually adds 5ms of latency into a signal flow that already has 15ms of latency from the Ipad itself. I calculated this by comparing two identical recorded signals (using Cubase) from the Ipad, one hard-wired and one with the Bluetooth MIDI. I was aghast to discover that the MD-BT01 added 5 ms of latency! I had already just found out that the Ipad was adding 15 ms of latency...for a keyboard player, anything much over 5 or 10 ms is too high unless you are triggering pads! I hope this technology catches up soon.
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Works well between player grand piano and iPhone or iPad. No latency noticed.
by David Bangs (5 out of 5 stars)
July 6, 2017

I connected this to my vintage 1997 Yamaha Disklavier grand piano. I was able to pair with my iPhone and iPad using an app called midimittr. Once paired, I was able use the Roland Sound Canvas app in order to generate sounds to accompany my playing. There was no detectable latency. I could also use other apps to both play to and record from the piano in exactly the same way as if I had used a USB connection to the iPhone. I think any app that will work with USB midi will also work with Bluetooth once you have paired using the midimittr app. I also succeeded in connecting to an Android phone and using midi in and out, but do not recall the steps right now.

The coolest thing is: You don't need a power supply or batteries. It gets power from the Bluetooth jacks directly.
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Works even on Windows 10
by Dmitrii Sutiagin (5 out of 5 stars)
November 8, 2018

Had to update my Bluetooth driver and install some extra soft (MidiBerry from WIndows Store + loopMidi or LoopBe1) but in the end it worked. Not very reliable when disconnecting and reconnecting (sometimes have to reboot PC), but that's a problem on Windows side, tried with Ipad and it works without issues. Also note that there's an app to update firmware and rename the device, but only on iOS - when I loaded it I was able to update firmware from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4, not sure if that improved anything though, my main problem seemed to be default MSFT Bluetooth driver with which there was bad latency and jitter, but now after installing latest from Intel it works smoothly (when it connects, because connection / re-connection is not very reliable).
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Does Not Work With iPad running IOS 9.3.5, Needs Bluetooth Version 4.0
by Mike49112 (1 out of 5 stars)
February 13, 2019

I purchased and installed this adapter to wirelessly connect my Yamaha piano to my older iPad which was running iOS 9.3.5. Before I purchased the adapter, I check to be sure it would work with this iOS and all the information I found on Yamaha's website indicated it would work with iOS 9.0 or better, In fact, I found one place which stated it would work with iOS 8.0 or grater. However, this is not the case.

It turns out my iPad would not display the bluetooth signal, and therefore I could not pair it to connect my iPad. I tried using the recommended Yamaha app, MD-BT01/UD-BT01 Utility, but it was no longer available from iTunes for download. I tried several Yamaha and third party apps, but none displayed the adapter. I finally contacted Yamaha. It took serval weeks to get a reply. After several email exchanges it turns out that the adapter needs Bluetooth Version 4.0 on the iPad. This was shown in the MD-BT01 Yamaha manual in a list of "specifications" not a "requirement". Even if I had looked at the manual before Purchased, I do not believe I would have picked up the need for Bluetooth 4.0.

Regardless, this appears to be the reason it will not work with my iPad despite the advertised requirement of iOS9.0 or above on many websites. By the way, none of the Yamaha or third party websites (Amazon, Sweetwater, Kraft etc.) tell you need Bluetooth 4.0 I also confirmed this using my granddaughters newer iPad (with Bluetooth 4.0) and the adapter displayed and connected using a third party app.

I have not returned the adapter since I plan to purchase a newer iPad down the road. But I am displeased with Yamaha's response. It took way too long to receive an answer from Yamaha and they have clearly misrepresented the connection requirements. Further, Yamaha has still not taken steps to correct the Adapter requirements, at least not to my knowledge.

I recommend you use care when purchasing this adapter, especially for older iPad models.
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Not useable due to latency
by M. Clark (2 out of 5 stars)
December 4, 2016

Technically this works which is great. The latency is problematic. It is essentially unusable if you need any amount of precision with your timing. I have it two stars instead of one because for many uses this wouldn't be an issue. If you are using hardware to control a software synth or drum machine then just don't do it.

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