prmo wrote:

I would like to use my modern computer as midi emulation station (General Midi + Munt) for my retro rig (which has Sound Blaster AWE64 inside) and to do that I need to buy USB to MIDI adapter.

Why? All you need is an MPU-401 interface. An inexpensive PCI sound card with a game port would serve your purpose just fine.

gdjacobs wrote:

prmo wrote:

I would like to use my modern computer as midi emulation station (General Midi + Munt) for my retro rig (which has Sound Blaster AWE64 inside) and to do that I need to buy USB to MIDI adapter.

Why? All you need is an MPU-401 interface. An inexpensive PCI sound card with a game port would serve your purpose just fine.

How would an MPU-401 interface help? He needs a way for the MIDI information to get to his modern computer. Also, he already has a game port on his AWE64.

To the OP: I don't have any experience with the one you linked. I went with a Roland UM-ONE MK2 from eBay for $36 and it works perfectly. Three times the cost of the one you linked is tough to swallow, I know. Perhaps you should get the one from Amazon and simply return it if it doesn't meet your needs.

airs wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

Why? All you need is an MPU-401 interface. An inexpensive PCI sound card with a game port would serve your purpose just fine.

How would an MPU-401 interface help? He needs a way for the MIDI information to get to his modern computer. Also, he already has a game port on his AWE64.

To the OP: I don't have any experience with the one you linked. I went with a Roland UM-ONE MK2 from eBay for $36 and it works perfectly. Three times the cost of the one you linked is tough to swallow, I know. Perhaps you should get the one from Amazon and simply return it if it doesn't meet your needs.

To be clear, any PCI based MIDI port (including on a sound card) should work. Install it in his modern machine and he'll be able to handle MIDI input.

To be clear, any PCI based MIDI port (including on a sound card) should work. Install it in his modern machine and he'll be able to handle MIDI input.

I forgot to mention that my "modern" PC is a laptop, so USB is the only viable option for me. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

I'm going to order this adapter (the one I linked earlier) in the near future and see if it's up to the task... I'll share the results here, if anyone is interested.

prmo wrote:

To be clear, any PCI based MIDI port (including on a sound card) should work. Install it in his modern machine and he'll be able to handle MIDI input.

I forgot to mention that my "modern" PC is a laptop, so USB is the only viable option for me. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

Does it have PCMCIA or cardbus slots? If so, you can get a PC card with a MIDI port that fits into that.

PCMCIA MIDI adapters are not common, nor cheap.

However, even the really cheap ebay adapters can work okay, with two caveats:
sometimes elements like the opto isolator have not been installed and need to be added
limitations of the chipset require a driver work around (Linux has it, not sure about Windows)

Of course you can just skip that nonsense and get a decent USB interface from Roland, M-Audio, or the like.