Re: MIDI-to-USB on Debian?
On Tuesday 13 February 2018 16:00:20 Nicholas Geovanis wrote:
> Does anyone have a MIDI-to-USB adapter they could recommend for Debian
> and/or linux?
> This is just for a point-to-point connection from a Yamaha keyboard to
> a laptop. Software on the laptop remains undetermined, probably some
> combination of Rhythmbox, CSound, Supercollider and god knows what
> else. Thanks......Nick
There may be such a critter, but expect to pay thru the nose for it, and
that the midi timing may suffer critically.
The usb chips are all optimized for std serial port speeds, but midi is
not a std serial port speed, its 31,250 baud falling smack in the middle
between 19,200, baud and 38,400 baud. I do not know of a usb chip that
would recognize a 31,250 baud signal as anything but noise to be
ignored.
You would, for performance reasons, be far better off to search for a
card that was designed from the gitgo, to run at midi speeds. And expect
that its going to need a desktop to house it, primarily because the full
sized din connector is going to use the full width of a cards back
panel.
Frankly, as an operating electronics technician involved in television
broadcasting since back the '60's, I am amazed at the longevity
exhibited by midi. It should have been replaced with better, faster ways
of doing it several times over the last nearly 60 years. Modern RS-485
hardware can be bidirectional, is a low voltage differential signal on
two wires that do not within reason, need a ground reference, and can
run at several megabuad for signal rates. And I can buy them on fleabay
for less than 10 bucks for 10 of them. Sure, midi still manages to get
the job done, but when you have the equ of a 40 piece orchestra being
played, you cannot get away from the impression that Floyd Cramer is
playing every instrument. And that is not how the original paper copy of
the music was written.
So find a real midi card, and forget about the effects of usb's latency
(which can be tens of milliseconds) as it translates the speed
differences.
--
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
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