Midi Connectors

[BRiteBak]

So I'm building a system for a mate and they have requested to have a midi connector of some description.

 

I am absolutley clueless about midi so I looked for sound cards with midi and had no luck so I'm just going to get a usb connector...

 

Is this a stupid idea?

What other solutions are there?

 

[Winther]

I really dont know much about audio connector other than a standard jack connector, but take a look at the Asus Xonar Essence One, from what I can see on pictures on the web it looks similar to what I think midi is.. :)

 

it is external though, but dont think I have seen internal audio cards with that kind of connector, if your mate really wants one he might have to buy some pro audio card...?

[ShearMe]

This article may or may not help you (i didn't read through it), but M-Audio has some good solutions like this.

[BRiteBak]

So it looks like I'll need a sound card with a gameport and an adapter..

This wouldn't improve the quality seeing as it only takes the reading of the note and duration.

Therefore there is no advantage to the sound card apart from the way it reads the signal and synthesises which is all softwware driven. 

 

What I'm asking now is, Is it worth the money to use a sound card and gameport of he is only using it for mucking around?

[Theodore-Cain]

Is this a stupid idea?

What other solutions are there?

 

USB MIDI interfaces like the M-Audio Uno or the Yamaha UX16 work great.  I've never used a gameport adapter but it should work fine.

Finding MIDI hardware is much more difficult than it used to be.  Most contemporary music interfaces (keyboards, drum pads) send their Midi data over USB connectors.  Actually using MIDI connectors is mostly for live performance and non-music applications nowadays.

 

So to answer your question, an alternate solution may be using a USB keyboard instead of MIDI connectors.

 

I currently only use USB keyboards, but I keep a Yamaha UX16 around for special projects.

 

You asked if it's worth the money- That depends on what music hardware he wants to plug in and what kind of mucking about we're talking about.  If he just wants to program some electronic music, he could just use his mouse to draw MIDI notes into his DAW.  If he is intending on buying a little keyboard, I say skip the MIDI connectors altogether.

 

Maybe you can tell us more about what gear he needs to plug in?  If he's a musician, is he buying an audio interface w/XLR inputs?  (those often come with onboard MIDI)