midi-port has gone

[six]

hey there

i had to buy a new PC... and new PCs don't have a game-port which means I'm not able to connect my midi-cable anymore.
What cheap alternatives are there to get a midi-connection again. I mean these midi-to-usb interfaces are not too reasonably priced.

[Carter]

Is 50.00 US too much?

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...midiinterfaces

[six]

yep, definitely. i've seen this part too. i don't trust m-audio anyway. had an m-audio usb-soundcard which I couldn't get to work.

the thing is, i'm really short on money at the moment because i had to buy this new pc (i could have lived easily with the old one... but it died ). furthermore 50 bucks are a lot if you consider what it actually does.

i considered buying the cheapest soundblaster card available... just to get the gameport, only to find out that they don't have gameports anymore.

[ssscientist]

Originally Posted by six

furthermore 50 bucks are a lot if you consider what it actually does.

Do you want us to lend you some money? We don't charge much for interest...

If not you'll just have to live without midi.

[six]

so you're the kind of guy who buys the 100'000 $ car that does absolutely the same as the 50'000 $? why? to show everybody how wealthy you are?

or better: you buy a new car, which is quite expensive, and you find it absolutely ok to spend some more money to fit it out with handy stuff your old car had?

ok, that's your way. i know there are a lot of people who choose the more expensive goods... maybe only because they're expensive and therefore make them feel good.

i give a sh*t on fancy brands if i can get similar quality for less bucks. pure economical thinking - i know a lot of musicians don't have this.

maybe you just never had to keep an eye on your money.

and yes, I will live without midi until I find a cheaper solution. i wouldn't even spend the 50 bucks if I found them on the street. this piece of gear is in no way worth 50 bucks.

[ssscientist]

Originally Posted by six

this piece of gear is in no way worth 50 bucks.

What kind of answer are you looking for? Or are you just venting?

To me, midi is not only worth $50 but a whole big bunch more than that. I am a professional musician and my whole life is music --- playing it, recording it and listening to it.

There are different levels of involvement and commitment. If having midi capability on your new computer is not worth $50 to you then it's not worth $50 to you, simple as that.

There are other brands besides MAudio -- Edirol and Yamaha are two that make single midi i/o interfaces that use your USB port.

.

[six]

no, i'm not venting. midi itself is worth more than 50$ to me. but an interface like that does nothing but link the midi-device to the PC... it's not much more than a conversion calbe, like usb-to-ps2 or something like that. things like that are not worth 50$. there are midi-usb-devices that do a lot more and may be worth their price - but I only need a simple communication between a device that can be midi-controlled and the pc.

there used to be soundcards with a game-port that was also a midi port (like the onboard-soundcard in my old pc). buy a cable and there you go. these cards were about 20$. unfortunately the newer cheapo-cards don't have that port anymore.

so now i try to find a used old soundblaster or something like that, just to use its midi/game-port. this simple solution hasn't occurred to me first, that's why I asked for solutions here.

[episg]

Edirol/Yamaha/Swissonic USB interface.. dirt cheap and really useful. 1-in 1-out. www.thomann.de = everyone says they're crap. Infact theyre actually very good.

[VGreen]

6

What sort of problems have you had with the M-audio interface? I have an M-audio Uno 1-1 usb-midi interface that I no longer need. It worked perfectly, it's just that I bought a keyboard that has an in-built usb port. You can have it for free. I did have some glitches with the driver initially, but I updated the driver for free over the net and had no problems after that. The problem is I live in Australia and you're probably in the US, so there'd be some postage costs. Get back to me if you're interested.

V