Here’s your regular, friendly reminder for those not in the know: if you’ve been puzzled by minijack and TRS connections for MIDI, and why none of them seem to work together, one website has (nearly) all the answers.
Minijack MIDI almost seemed like a no-brainer. The lowly 3.5 mm (1/8″) minijack has enough pinouts to carry all the same data the larger MIDI DIN cable does. Unfortunately, the idea to make this happen occurred before a clear statement in the MIDI spec on how to implement it. And despite online campaigns to get everyone to adopt a single format for which pin was connected to which part of the plug, manufacturers found different solutions, including even simple TS. (This goes for larger TRS/TS connections, too, so 6.25mm – 1/4″, for instance.)
That has resulted in a split known as “Type A” and “Type B.” Provided you have the right minijack-to-DIN adapter, though, you can swap adapters from different manufacturers. And if you do manage to get the same “type” at both ends, you can even run a minijack cable between devices and skip DIN entirely.
This site breaks down the history, all the details of how different connections can differ (there are even more than two variations), and lets you look up your make and model in case you can’t find the information in your manufacturer’s documentation (typical).
You can also submit your own updated data on GitHub:
https://github.com/audionerd/minimidi-data
It’s all the work of Minneapolis, Minnesota-based developer eric skogen, aka “audionerd.” Kudos, Mr. Nerd.
And yes, for some history, I tried to amplify the work of people advocating for this connection in the past: