USB or not USB; that is the question!

  • Thread starter Thread starter eviljoker7075
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eviljoker7075

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Hey, this is a really quick question. My PC doesn't have a midi connector and I'm looking at buying this keyboard/controller. Will it be able to run soley through my USB ports?

click here for keyboard
 
Yor PC probably does have a joystick/game port......that can be used as a MIDI I/O, you just need this .
 
Cool, er but if I don't have a joystick port thingie, could I get a midi cable to line in port?
 
Nope. Midi is data, line in is audio, but I have yet to see a computer without a gameport.
 
hehe, is my face red! Can you show me a picture of a game port?
 
Halion said:
... I have yet to see a computer without a gameport.
Click to expand...
Come to my house and I'll show you three of them. The game/joystick port seems to have gone extinct. I never had much success with MIDI through a game port, so for me it's good riddance. MIDI via USB is much more stable.

eviljoker7075, I think you'll be much happier with the Edirol keyboard than you ever would be with a game port MIDI adapter.
 
Thanks, so it will work through USB without any other cables or anything?
 
You will need something that makes sounds, too. MIDI data by itself is extremely boring, musically. :p
 
Edirol (Roland) make a USB to midi adaptor (UM-1) which can send and accept midi data.

So you can actually have a laptop running a sequencer sending midi out data to your external synth modules, and then connect the audio out from the modules to your audio interface / sound card inputs and record on a second program (a recording program like n-track) running under the same copy of Windows. (I actually run audio back in through a second USB port).

Some sequencers (like n-track etc) enable midi and audio tracks to live side-by-side. So you can import a midi sequence into one track, then route this midi note data to an external synth module and record the module audio on a different track.
 
Yeah, I can download programs that will turn the midi signals into different sound though? yeah?
 
I would definately go with one with USB. I haven't tried USB yet, but I'm sure the latency is much better than through a sound card. I get like 27ms of latency when I use my RS-50 through midi cables going into my sound blaster live (only asio 1.0). USB has to be much closer to realtime than that.
 
If you don't have a good audio card and can afford it, I suggest you spend almost $100(instead of $50 on a USB midi adaptor) and get an M-audio 2496 Audiophile card. In addition to great audio, it has midi connectors that are better than gameport or USB MIDI.
 
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