MIDI->ADB->PowerBook 5300cs

[somorastik]

Hi,

I´m going to build this project:

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/8way_drm2/8way_drm2_1.htm

It´s an 8-way velocity sensitive Midi drum pad.

I was just wondering how to interface it with any of my old macs, especialy the old 5300cs.

Maybe using this helpful site:

http://www.usyd.edu.au/anaes/rpa/Loadsmanextras/Macmidi.html

http://home.concepts-ict.nl/~nctnico/midi.htm#l14

Or is anoyone experienced with MIDI who would help me? Im a total newbie to this interfacing.

Thanks ;D

 

[register]

I built two of Mac RS422 to MIDI interface devices using the description given in the c't magazine. This interface works very well (powered from serial port, 1 x MIDI in, 2 x MIDI out). The interface design seems to be similar to John's MIDI interface. Which version to build is a matter of available parts, I think. The c't article is written in German, but anyone able to built such things will only need the parts list and PCB layout. (The PCB I used came from the eMedia shop.)

 

[somorastik]

Thanks for reply, thats great news! german is no problem for me neither making my own pcb. Anyway what software do you use with the midi interface, and what hardware do you plug in? I imagine the drum pads connected to powerbook through interface and protools or cubase running on the machine. While playing the drums in real time??? Do I have it right?

 

[Bunsen]

Mac MIDI goes to the serial port, not ADB. There are lots of designs out there for making your own interface, or you can hunt one up on ebay for not too many dollars.

Forget ProTools - it's for audio, not MIDI, especially versions that old. There are older versions of Logic and Cubase that will run on a 5300, and you might want to check out the shareware MIDIgraphy.

Check out http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/mac/

 

[somorastik]

So if I have it right, I plug the drum pads into the MIDI drum controler then into the mac serial interface and then into powerbook.

I load an old version of cubase, and record the hits on the drum pads as audio into cubase?

Im a total newbie to midi and to what it can or cant do.

Thanks [8]

 

[register]

what software do you use with the midi interface, and what hardware do you plug in?

Last time I plugged in a MIDI setup is quite a while ago. The software in use was version 2.5 of the Deluxe Music Construction Set (Geoff Brown and John MacMillan). The hardware was a Colour Classic (!) and a MIDI enabled e-piano. The software provides an input sheet to write notes and a screen keyboard to be played by mouse or keystrokes. It was possible to let the piano play completely software driven from a document as well as playing the piano manually whilst having the computer taking down the notes to a document in standard musical notation. The software could also output sound through the computer. The setup was not as sophisticated as recent hardware/software combos, but cheap and usable.
I switched on that old CC and found also a demo version of Cubase Score 2 (Steinberg), but I can not remember to have used Cubase successfully on that machine.

And yes, as

Mac MIDI goes to the serial port, not ADB.

 

[somorastik]

This forum is ALIVE I like that.

What software can I use apart from the ones mentioned. I know I succesfuly installed Cubase on the Powerbook...

 

[LCGuy]

You'll need OMS...thats when the fun REALLY begins!

 

[Bunsen]

So if I have it right, I plug the drum pads into the MIDI drum controler then into the mac serial interface and then into powerbook. I load an old version of cubase

Yes

and record the hits on the drum pads as audio into cubase?

No.

MIDI is not audio. MIDI is a control signal.

Think of it like a page of sheet music - it's not sound, it's a series of instructions for what sounds to make and when.

You send that signal to another device (or piece of software) that actually makes the sounds, like a pianist sitting at a piano reading the sheet music. The sound comes from the piano, not from the sheet music.

It gets confusing when the audio player (the synthesiser or sampler) is built into the same program as the MIDI recorder/sequencer, but they are two separate functions.

You can send a MIDI stream straight into a synth and get sound out in real time, or record the MIDI stream into a sequencer, or both. Once it's recorded, you can edit it on screen to fix up errors or just to make it different - like word processing. You can assign the notes to a different playback sound on your player device. Etc.

 

[somorastik]

Thank you very much for the reply, it cleared a few things up for me.

Still how would I be able to play the midi drum set in real time? Just like a real drum set? Through a computer sequencer?

:?:

I have never tuched a Midi equipment so I guess I will learn a lot more when I will try and play around with the real stuff, still though learning the principles and reading is necessary.

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By the way what do you think of this 8-Way Midi Drum ?

Im definitely going to build it! A friend is going to program the microcontroller for me.

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/8way_drm2/8way_drm2_1.htm