midi interface

Venus · Thu 09/03/2006 14:34:16

I recently got myself a very nice YAMAHA keyboard and now I am looking for a good and cheap usb midi interface to plug it into my computer. Is there anything you can recommend. The cheapest one I found was the Swissonic USB 1x1 for 19.90â,¬ at thomann.de(site is in German, but contains a picture). Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else about it. There doesn't seem to be another shop that is selling those and I found no test results etc.
My questions now are: Does any of you have/know the Swissonic USB 1x1 or do you know whether it is any good? What other devices could you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Gregjazz · Thu 09/03/2006 17:41:27

M-Audio makes some MIDI > USB converters. There's the M-Audio Uno, among a few. Check out more: http://www.maudio.co.uk/index.php?do=products.list&ID=usbmidiinterfaces

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Thu 09/03/2006 21:04:29

Those are more expensive than I thought they would be -_-.

Venus · Fri 10/03/2006 20:34:32

ProgZ, I didn't know they'd cost so much either.
Thanks for the tip, Geoffkhan, but those are far too expensive for me. I even found some shops that sell the M-audio Uno for 40â,¬, but still too much for my taste.
I think I'll try the Swissonic one. It seems to be the cheapest.

Thanks for the help!

modgeulator · Fri 10/03/2006 22:21:20

Have you checked that your sound card or motherboard doesn't have a MIDI port/gameport already? If so you could just buy an adaptor cable.

Venus · Sat 11/03/2006 16:12:20

Yes, my motherboard has a gameport, but as far as I know those adaptor cables are only slightly cheaper (the cheapest one I found was 15â,¬) and not really good (the ones I tried all had timing issues etc.). Apart from that the gameport is already in use and I don't want to crawl under my desk everytime I want to make some music. But thanks for the tip anyway.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Sat 11/03/2006 21:55:38

You can always do the old ProgZ ghetto recording method and use your computer keyboard for everything ;|

biothlebop · Sat 11/03/2006 22:20:21

There is also a free software that turns game controllers into Midi controllers (joysticks etc). A friend of mine had a plan to buy a data glove and use it like that but guess he forgot about it.

Venus · Sun 12/03/2006 23:57:21

Quote from: ProgZmax on Sat 11/03/2006 21:55:38
You can always do the old ProgZ ghetto recording method and use your computer keyboard for everything ;|

I tried that once and this experience was one of the main reasons why I decided to get a proper keyboard

. Do you still do your stuff like that? Because then I'd have to envy/admire you even more...

Quote from: biothlebop on Sat 11/03/2006 22:20:21
There is also a free software that turns game controllers into Midi controllers (joysticks etc). A friend of mine had a plan to buy a data glove and use it like that but guess he forgot about it.

That sounds interesting. Never heard about that. I think I'll stick to the "old-fashioned" way though...

biothlebop · Mon 13/03/2006 00:03:06

I was wondering, aren't timing issues related more to the fact if you are using asio drivers? I am using a USB-keyboard and the only reason why it records on time, is because I have a soundcard designed for that purpose. Shouldn't Asio4All be enough and the choice of midi input port irrelevant?

Venus · Mon 13/03/2006 01:09:24

I don't know Asio4All, but my experience is that freeware Asio emulators are nice for testing stuff etc, but don't really get satisfactory results to get you around buying a proper Asio card (which I obviously can't afford)
Apart from that, I also want to be able to plug my keyboard into other PCs as quickly as possible, since I sometimes take it to friends, need it on stage but connected to the band's computer etc. There are just too many difficulties with the gameport method and I honestly don't want to carry my computer around with me all the time. The keyboard is heavy enough.
Since the cable I'd need to plug it into my comp via gameport is only slightly cheaper (4â,¬, I think), I'll definitely go for the system that offers me the most advantages and since there are quite a lot, I think they are worth 4â,¬.

xenogia · Mon 13/03/2006 03:40:06

Well if you have a sound blaster-esque card you can download the KX Drivers (kxproject.com) and you can have minimal latency on those cards. Around 2 - 12ms if your cpu is decent enough

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Tue 14/03/2006 04:42:36

QuoteI tried that once and this experience was one of the main reasons why I decided to get a proper keyboard Wink. Do you still do your stuff like that? Because then I'd have to envy/admire you even more...

Admire? Me? Shucks. Yes, I still do everything by computer keyboard, have since the amiga days using Octamed. Must have over a hundred really bad mods I made back then! This is the main reason why I have trouble with the sequencer in Reason, since you have to actually start playing the pattern before recording, and the midi emulator I got (Bome) has to be tabbed to before I can start keying in notes.

biothlebop · Tue 14/03/2006 12:37:59

Why do you even bother with Reason then? I began with FL, then used Reason and finally Cubase because the sounds and capabilities of Reason seemed so limited to me. It's fast to compose with it though.
If you use your computer keyboard, wouldn't a VST-compliant program that has that feature built in be better?
Live has it as does FL and probably Renoize or a similar modern tracker.