appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 11:14:
mkarcher wrote on 2021-12-23, 10:27:
No, that's not how the X2BOX works. The X2BOX is meant to be connected to a USB port of your computer as a USB device, just like the Roland cable you linked. The X2BOX can not work as USB host and interface to the Roland cable.
If you want to run a X2GS synthesizer connected to your 15-pin MIDI port of a sound card (instead of just installing it on the waveblaster header internally), what you need is something like the CHiLL and Phil adapter.
I don't think this is true, doesn't X2BOX have the same functionality as X3MA/B?
Not really at all. There is one thing the X2BOX and the X3MA/B have in common: Both can connect to a host computer and receive MIDI data via USB. The X2BOX sends this MIDI data to the waveblaster connector inside the box, so you can plug the X2GS module there. The X3MA/B sends the midi data to the integrated MIDI port (if jumpered as MIDI out) or to the integrated MIDI synthesizer chip. The X3MA doesn't have a waveblaster connector. The X3MA can do a lot more, like digital audio playback and capturing the MIDI output (possibly mixed with the digital output), which is not directly related to MIDI playback. Also the X3MA can send MIDI data from the MIDI connector to the integrated synthesizer chip, so you can connect the X3MA to the 15-pin gameport using the usual adapter cable.
Neither of the X2BOX or X3MA are designed to act like a host computer controlling the Roland cable. appiah4 corrected me. This statement is wrong, at least the X3MA is able to act as a host controller. The suggested setup should work. with the X3MA. New EDIT: dreamblaster explicitly claims that the devices are not working as host, see Re: X2GS : Waveblaster board with dual soundbank support, official Dream/Roland licensed GS bank
Instead, if the hobbyist nature with the missing case of the Chill & Phil module is the main problem for Jakal (I missed page 8 when I wrote the last comment), one could use the usual gameport/MIDI cable to connect a gameport to a sufficiently large CHiLLBOX with the CHiLL 3 adapter board. I didn't check wheter the X2GS requires the CHiLLBOX XL, or the classice CHiLLBOX fits. This won't help Jackal if the X2GS is already in use in the X2BOX, though. If Serdashop had somthing like the USB MIDI Host Module, but for MIDI IN instead of MIDI OUT, you could connect a classic soundcard gameport with a standard cable to the hypothetical USB MIDI IN Host module, and connect that one to the X2BOX.