ap@cbnews.att.com (Alexis Porras) (03/22/91)
MIDI for the rest of us? NOT SO FAST! [I am just starting out on this Midi stuff, so don't assume I know the obvious!] I have a MacIIci, and a Yamaha PSR-47 keyboard (ie: a toy for the masses, not some professional musician's instrument). The PSR-47 comes with MIDI in and out ports. Got my MIDI interface box (Altech Systems MIDI-EX interface) in the mail yesterday,. and stayed up half the night trying to get it to work... using a variety of Mac software, including some nifty utilities shipped with the intf. box - MIDIScope, MiniTrax, and ConcertWare 5.0. [purchased separately!]. ALl I want to do is hook up the keyboard to the Mac II and fool around - play a few notes, record them, edit them, play them back... (1) First Problem: 0.5Mhz, 1Mhz, 2MHz ?? I thought this MIDI stuff was standard!! There are no tech specs for the MIDI intf on the keyboard, and the intf box one-page manual says "1MHz", while the software is all settable to three values... So will my keyboard work at 1MHz?? (2) External/Internal clock?? which should I be using? No matter which I selected on the PSR-47, the activity lights on the MIDI interface implied that the keyboard was sending packets to the Mac continuously... (why?? nothing was being played!) (3) Buffer overflows (?) - every single time we sent data to the keyboard from the Mac, the keyboard status display indicated "Err", whcih the manual explains means "Error" (thanks a lot, Mr. Manual!!). Errors are caused by buffer overflows or by bad packets - butyou can't tell the diff... Anyway - no combination of options and settings produced a single note on the keyboard or recorded a single note at the Mac... I already checked the two cables, and the interface (loopback test worked), and yes, MIDI IN to MIDI OUT and vice-versa... SHould I care about any of these options on the keyboard? Remote Control vs Standard Voice Mode (def=?) Local Control ON or OFF (def=ON) OMNI ON or OFF (def=OFF) Rec Channel (def=1) Transmit Channel (def=1) HELP! HELP! HELP! This MIDI stuff was supposed to be EASY! It was easy at the Mac World demo of ConcertWare... (of course, that was 2 years ago... Got the keyboard then, but the Mac II had to wait until January...) WHAT'S THE MAGIC TRICK?? Alexis