Midi soundblaster direct connect?

From: melamy_at_earthlink.net <(melamy_at_earthlink.net)>
Date: Fri May 28 19:35:56 2004

to add my comments, if you are concerned about compatibility,
you are probably listening to a saleman that wants to sell you
a USB to MIDI adapter. I walked into a music store a few months
back and was asking about such things. The salesman proceeded
to tell me that computers don't have midi interfaces anymore
and that I would need to buy something from him.

I have put together many systems over the years and I had yet
to hear of a MPU401 problem and I had thought they had basically
become standard because of the Creative Labs SoundBlaster. I
have a ASUS 4C800 MB (800mhz FSB, 1.8G cpu, sound, & ethernet
on board). I went home, checked the ASUS site and all I needed
to get was a game port adapter for it to bring the midi out.
That cost me around $12 on eBay, I installed it, pulled out my
handy game port to midi cable adapter (same one you can get on
eBay for around $18), connected up my Panasonic keyboard, and
ran the software that I had bought called ("Instant Play Piano"
at Costco. Everything worked perfectly...

best regards, Steve Thatcher

>--- Original Message ---
>From: "R. D. Davis" <rdd_at_rddavis.org>
>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
>Date: 5/28/04 7:15:01 PM
>
Quothe Tony Duell, from writings of Fri, May 28, 2004 at 11:20:52PM
+0100:
>> It's not exactly complicated, the only thing you'd need would
be a spec
>> of what the Soundblaster was expecting.
>
>Somewhere, I read that some of the newer sound cards don't match
the
>original Soundblaster spec properly and some of the older MIDI
adapter
>circuits won't work... a current related issue, IIRC. Can anyone
>comment on this?
>
>> Raid one from an old SMPSU (they're often used in the voltage
regulation
>> feebcak circuit)?
>
>Those old PSUs are a source of many useful parts. :-) 4N35s
appeared
>to be rather inexpensive, so I ordered ten of them and am going
to
>have a go at building a couple of circuits around them for Mac
and PC
>MIDI interfaces.
>
>> It may not apply here, but I've seen cheap cables and adapters
that are
>> so poorly soldered that you have to completely rebuild them.
In which
>> case it's probably less hassle to make it yourself in the
first place.
>
>Besides, one can modify one's circuitry at a later point in
time for
>whatever reason, more easily than hacking on one of those cables.
>
>> > Besides, by the time you add in mounting and housing, the
cost for the
>> > homebrew has probably at least doubled, in money and time
both.
>>
>> I used to estimate {Cost of main components} * 3.
>
>All Electronics sells some inexpensive cases and connectors.
 Mouser
>stocks much nicer connectors, but not perf board (darn that's
become
>expensive!) and inexpensive cases.
>
>> Anyway, if you just want a quick-n-dirty hack why bother to
house it?
>> Mount the board ont he DA15 plug or something.
>
>That's good for uses when cabling isn't going to get disturbed
much,
>but in cases where it will, I'd go with a cheap project box,
>connectors, etc.
>
>--
>Copyright (C) 2004 R. D. Davis The difference between humans
& other animals:
>All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're
above Nature &
>www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma
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Received on Fri May 28 2004 - 19:35:56 BST