When I’m not out playing in my live band I’m usually working on writing and recording music in my home studio. I use a lot of MIDI equipment and several computers so I’m always looking out for convenient MIDI interfaces. Today I’m going to tell you about the Cakewalk UM-2G 2×2 USB MIDI interface for the Mac and PC computer.
The UM-2G is a very basic and easy-to-use MIDI interface. It’s as easy as plugging the interface into a USB port on your computer, loading the correct driver for your operating system and plugging your keyboard into the interface with a MIDI cable. There is a CD-ROM included with the UM-2G MIDI interface that has all the driver software you will need to get the interface up and running quickly on your computer.
There are a couple of features I really like on the UM-2G MIDI interface. I like that fact that it has two MIDI In/out ports built into it. That means you can hook up two separate MIDI device’s directly to the UM-2g interface. It’s convenient when you want to leave your main MIDI controller keyboard hooked up to your computer and still be able to hook up something like an effects unit to upload or download sound patches. Having that second MIDI port on the interface saves you from some hassle of having to plug and unplug MIDI cables at least.
The Cakewalk UM-2G also has a switch on the side labeled “Advanced Driver” which you can use to enable Cakewalk’s Fast Processing Technology (FPT) which is built into the interface. According to Cakewalk, Fast Processing Technology “allows for high speed, high resolution MIDI data transmission by a combination of driver and hardware improvements to take advantage of the high-speed extensive transmission capability of USB.” I use the interface with the switch on and it seems to work really well.
The Cakewalk UM-2G is a very well built MIDI interface and it works perfectly with any Cakewalk software. It’s reasonably priced and extremely easy to use. I recommend it if you’re looking for a good MIDI interface for your home studio.
