Review: CME WIDI Master

After being a loyal user of CME’s XKey keyboard for years and seeing the success they’ve had with their wireless XKEY Air, I was excited to back their crowdfunding campaign for the WIDI Master, a wireless MIDI solution. The two units I ordered came in the mail yesterday, and I was able to do some brief testing.

WIDI Master to WIDI Master

After first hooking these up the wrong direction and then flipping them around the right way (perhaps an IN/OUT indicator on both parts would have been helpful- I’ll have to write on mine,) I was able to get great results transmitting between my Nord Electro 5D and Yamaha MOXF8. Latency was unnoticeable, and all data (patch changes, expression, etc) seemed to be transmitting correctly. Both keyboards are very close to each other, so I can’t speak to the distance the WIDI Master will cover, but CME’s test videos are very impressive. So far, very pleased.

The one feature desperately missing at the moment is the ability to control configuration in terms of which unit is in control. CME promises this will be included in the forthcoming app.

iOS Compatibility

I hooked one up to the MOXF8, paired it with the midimttr app on my iPad as instructed, and began playing in Garageband. Initially as I played around one note at a time, latency seemed minimal. But as I began playing faster lines and chords, it became very choppy and basically unusable. I hooked up my XKey to the iPad with a wired connection and had no problems, so there is something not clicking between the iPad and the WIDI Master. CME is aware of this issue, and has said they’ll work on this issue.

App

As of this writing, the WIDI Master app is only available for Android devices, leaving configuration and firmware updates unavailable for Apple users. Reports from other users also indicate that the only button on the WIDI Master causes the unit to enter a testing mode and completely brick itself until reset by the app. I look forward to the app when it comes available for Apple users, but not having it at product launch is certainly a misstep.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m pretty pleased, and look forward to learning more about how I can incorporate these into my setup. I’ll update this post as I learn more and as CME catches up on firmware updates and the iOS app.