Using the CME WIDI Jack with a BOSS GT-1000core and an RC-5

Recently, I showed a pedal board with a BOSS GT-1000core and an RC-5 looper. One of the differences between the GT-1000core and the GT-1000 is the lack of bluetooth support. We still can connect to the GT-1000core via USB to use BTS – but only with a computer. When we want to use BTS for GT-1000 with a tablet we cannot connect to it via USB. This is the same behaviour as with the GT-1000. There is a solution to this however: enter CME WIDI Jack – a MIDI to bluetooth gateway. This has been demonstrated in various places across the internet.

So, when I got my WIDI Jack I was a little surprised that I did not get it working right away. After pairing, upon first connection I received a “Wrong Device” message from the app (on Android). My setup might differ from others, as I have (the MIDI in port of) a BOSS RC-5 looper connected to the MIDI out port of the GT-1000core.

In case you have a similar setup with the GT-1000core not being the only active MIDI device – this is what I did and how I wired it up:

1. BOSS GT-1000core MIDI out (3.5mm) — > BOSS RC-5 MIDI in (3.5mm)
2. BOSS RC-5 MIDI out (3.5mm) — > CME WIDI Jack MIDI in (2.5mm)
   Note: this essentially means, the RC-5 is powering the CME WIDI Jack (and not the GT-1000core).
3. CME WIDI Jack MIDI out (2.5mm) — > BOSS GT-1000core MIDI in (3.5mm)

The important bit here is to have the WIDI Jack directly connected to the GT-1000core.

Apart from this, on the RC-5 I only had to enable “MIDI Thru” for the MIDI port via the Setup menu:
Setup | MIDI | MIDI Thru: MIDI OUT
Note: you can also set this to “MIDI/USB” (not needed in my scenario).

As mentioned above, the RC-5 is powering the WIDI Jack. So, in case you are switching off the RC-5 (for example, to preserve energy) the WIDI Jack needs to be powered by either USB-C or by connecting it to the MIDI out port of the GT-1000core. The latter might be a bit fiddly (at least in my setup) as we have to swap the 3.5mm-to-3.5mm TRS cable with a 3.5mm-to-2.5mm TRS cable. Good news is, two 2.5mm-to-3.5mm TRS cables come with the WIDI Jack.

Note: the WIDI Jack can be unplugged when it is not needed (again for example, to preserve energy or to stop the blue LED from blinking all the time). In this case, the RC-5 is still synced via the GT-1000core.

And this is all that needs to be done to get the WIDI Jack working with a GT-1000core and a RC-5.

Now, I only have to figure out how to use BOSS Tone Studio for GT-1000 in landscape mode on my tablet. Anyone?