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Old October 26th 19, 08:12 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Roger Mills
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Posts: 4
Default archaeology! MIDI keyboard with joystick interface?

On 24/10/2019 23:54, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
(I'm using Windows 7, but have included the other two 'groups for
reasons that will become evident!)

I was explaining about MIDI (musical) keyboards to a friend, when I
remembered I had one, that I'd hardly used. I dug it out - it's still in
its box, even with its original plastic bag - 3 octaves, mini size keys.
"evolution MUSIC WIZARD".

However: it has a 15-pin male connector on the end of a lead coming out
of it!

Looking into things, it would appear that that originally connected to
the joystick port on a soundcard.

I've had a look around, and I can't find anything to connect this to
USB. I've found gameport to MIDI - those seem to consist of four
connectors: a male 15 way and a female 15 way, and two five-pin male DIN
plugs (the sort that was originally used for [mostly Philips] audio
equipment in the 1970s, and early PC keyboards). I _think_ these are
just passive cables - no electronics. I've also found USB to MIDI -
these I think _do_ have electronics in them; they mostly also end in two
male DIN plugs (the electronics in a little lump in the cable), but one
or two are a little box with a couple of female DIN sockets.

If I have to go that way, can I talk to it by using one of each of these
- or, does anyone know of a single adapter (that has 15-way female to USB)?

Looking at the excellent http://www.hardwarebook.info/, it looks as if
MIDI (http://www.hardwarebook.info/MIDI) is just two wires - a current
source and a current sink - plus a shield.
http://www.hardwarebook.info/PC_Gameport_with_MIDI seems to support that.

And before anyone says - yes, I know I could probably get a second-hand
USB MIDI keyboard for less than the price of the two adapters! But I
like a challenge.

And, whether I get the old keyboard working or buy a new [or
second-hand] one, (a) will I need drivers for a MIDI keyboard, or does
Windows 7 know about such things intrinsically, and (b) any suggestions
for good free MIDI editing/recording software? I rather suspect the
software that's with the keyboard won't work with Windows 7, as it says
I need at least Windows 3.1 (-:


I assume that the keyboard itself has the usual two 5-pin 180 degree DIN
sockets, and that the cable which you have has two DIN plugs at one end
and and a 15-pin D connector at the other end?

If so, throw that cable away and get one of these:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-MIDI-Ca...a-794854502288

It's Plug-n-Play and will load the necessary drivers automatically when
you plug it in.

You then just need some MIDI sequencing software. I'm still using an old
version of Cakewalk Express which was certainly written for an earlier
version of Windows - but works perfectly happily on W7 (32-bit or
64-bit) [So it must be a 32-bit rather than 16-bit application, probably
dating from W95 or 98, but not W3.1]

If you send me a PM, I can probably fix you up with a copy.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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