Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

one looks fancy.

One is midi to USB, two is midi to joystick-in. Both probably work, just check your computer to see what you have available. Number one seems a little overpriced to me.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

Does your computer even HAVE a joystick port? They're pretty antiquated these days.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

Midi to USB works better; however there is another option - firewire port
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

Midi is a pretty slow protocol, so you gain absolutely no benefit from using firewire. Both USB to midi and the joystick port work fine- I have used both. The only benefit to USB to midi, is that USB can usually also power a USB enabled keyboard ( I use an M-Audio Radum49)...with the parallel port, you need a separate power adapter for a setup like that, since it doesn't carry power.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

Mincer said:
Midi is a pretty slow protocol, so you gain absolutely no benefit from using firewire. Both USB to midi and the joystick port work fine- I have used both. The only benefit to USB to midi, is that USB can usually also power a USB enabled keyboard ( I use an M-Audio Radum49)...with the parallel port, you need a separate power adapter for a setup like that, since it doesn't carry power.

I think there's definitely a benefit as far as latency
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

I have never run in to latency issues with MIDI, only audio/analog signals.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

I'm not sure if newer computers got this Game Port on the soundcard... so maybe USB is better!
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

larry_emder said:
How does it work better stratman?
and rd, yeah i'm pretty sure it has one

Don't be pretty sure - check and see. MIDI is MIDI - there isn't a better way to do it. Just get what's cheapest and works.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

RushOfBlood said:
I think there's definitely a benefit as far as latency

nope- midi is not audio (USB Audio has serious problems in some computers). Midi is a *very* old, and slow process, so, unless your computer was made in 1982, you will not see real benfits either way. You press a key, you hear a sound, just like on any hardware synth.
Now, if the sound is full of pops, and your computer freaks out, it is not because of midi/usb/parallel...it is because you computer is having problems loading the samples and/or streaming from the hard disk. All softsynths and sequencers have 'latency' adjustments, but this is purely for audio, not midi.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

Mincer said:
nope- midi is not audio (USB Audio has serious problems in some computers). Midi is a *very* old, and slow process, so, unless your computer was made in 1982, you will not see real benfits either way. You press a key, you hear a sound, just like on any hardware synth.
Now, if the sound is full of pops, and your computer freaks out, it is not because of midi/usb/parallel...it is because you computer is having problems loading the samples and/or streaming from the hard disk. All softsynths and sequencers have 'latency' adjustments, but this is purely for audio, not midi.

Bingo.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

Well it turns out that the cpu i wish to use it for doesnt even have a 15 pin midi port, so it looks like i'll be using the usb cable.

That seems a little backwards doesnt it,....paying more for something that does exactly the same thing because technology has 'phased out' something that seemingly worked fine???......whats the deal?
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

MIDI is MIDI, it doesn't matter how you connect the different components all that much. When I changed from stand alone to PC I connected my Digi 002 via USB and later when I bought my Mac I changed to firewire.

While there is a physical difference in the two, the results were the same. The old 15 pin MIDI/joystick controller plugs are the old school connections, USB 2 and Firewire are the new school connections.

I never got into direct to PC recording and I have always used an interface (Digi 002) which has all the USB, firewire and MIDI plugs installed already and the routing is handled by the Digi.

Thats the beauty of an interface. The Digi, MBox and simular devices already have an assortment of I/O, MIDI, mic preamps and monitoring already built in as well as the associated software and plug-ins to tie it all together.

It will be cheaper and easier in the long run to buy an integrated system with all the parts included than to peice it together.
 
Re: Midi to USB OR Midi to sound card

larry_emder said:
How does it work better stratman?
and rd, yeah i'm pretty sure it has one

http://industrialcomponent.com/edirol/edifa101.html

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FirewireAudiophile-main.html

For keyboards = http://www.nusystems.co.uk/product/M-Audio.Ozonic

Applications that benefit from 1394 are plug and play personal desktop computing. The low overhead, high data rates of 1394, the ability to mix real-time synchronous and asynchronous data on a single line and the ability to mix low speed and high speed devices on the same single network connection, provides a truly universal connection for musician applications.

Although other high performance connectivity protocols like USB 2.0 are available, the backward and forward compatibility, peer to peer process sharing and future performance potential make 1394 the better performance champion
 
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