Conference napalm::commusic_v1

	I don't know what you are planning to do, but You'll find that
	you really need to figure that out before your go further.

	If you are going to do general purpose type MIDI and nothing
	fancy (no SMPTE or FSK hardware requirements), I'd suggest that
	you look into the Sound Blaster Pro (it includes FM synth
	chips that you can address directly as an internal MIDI port,
	and has a fairly simple set of drum sounds (Bass Kick/Snare/
	Closed Hi-Hat/Tom/Cymbol) that you might want to use & comes
	with Voyetra's SPjr. Most MIDI sequencers work with the Sound
	Blaster, as do many other programs (like Band In a Box).
	You can control your MIDI keyboards and run sequences with
	no problems using this board. The regular Sound Blaster
	doesn't come with the MIDI interface connector or the sequencer;
	by the time you buy it, you'll have spent as much as if you
	bought the Pro set up. Another advantage is that you can use
	the board to do small scale sampling/playback. If you play
	many PC based games, this set up will provide a sound track to
	your games (where supported), and your computer may talk to
	you (thru the digital sample port).

	The MPU401 boards have the advantage of being more common &
	better supported for many applications. If you eventually
	want to do SIMPTE or other non MIDI specific hardware syncing,
	this might be a good choice. One problem with MPU401's are
	that there is no way to tell if the data within it's internal
	buffer is valid or not; While this usually isn't a problem,
	it could make a difference if you are planning to grab big
	SYSEX dumps. Music Quest has a good product range that you
	may want to consider. The boards are not upgradable.

	The Voyetra boards have a much more limited availability of
	software, however, the Microsoft MultiMedia Specification 
	requirements should nullify that issue on into the future.
	The V22 and V24 series is upgradable to MPU401 compatability
	and also SIMPTE and other external (non-MIDI) signal capabilities
	can be added later. 

	Cakewalk (A popular sequencer) supports the Sound Blaster and the
	MPU401. It doesn't work with with the V22/V24's.

	Voyetra's sequencers work with all of the above boards.

							Jens

BTW, MPU401 is Roland's model number for their card.  I'm not sure they actually
make it anymore.

MusicQuest is another company who makes MIDI cards.  The ones I know of are
MPU401 compatible.  The simplest/cheapest one made by MusicQuest is called
PC MIDI.  Then there are various higher models which contain dual ports, SMPTE,
etc etc.  The PC MIDI goes for no more than $100 in the US.

So I would say for the moment, only consider SoundBlaster or MPU-401 compatible,
since they are probably the most commonly-supported.  SoundBlaster will be
more expensive, but you get more capability.  A MusicQuest PC MIDI is probably
the cheapest, and will be supported by even older MIDI software, but has no
sound generation or sampling capability capability.  It is also clearly "old
technology", although I don't think the "new technology" standard has been
sorted out yet.

Burns

    Dudes,
    
    When you say these cards have SMPTE support, you're talking "audio"
    SMPTE, right?  That is, this ain't the "video" SMPTE ...
    
    Steve

    >.."audio" SMPTE, right?  That is, this ain't the "video" SMPTE ...
    
    You mean "LTC" versus "VTC" SMPTE...  ;-)
    
    karl

    gack!  VTC = video time clock?  LTC = linear time clock?  Sorry if I
    missed the defs in a previous note ...
    
    Steve

    Steve, Steve..
    
    LTC = Longitudinal Time Code, like, along an audio track
    VTC = Vertical Time Code, like vertically in the interstices between
    frames on a video
    
    is this an elitist reply ?
    
    karl

    You see, you've asked a very complicated question, and you need to 
    state what your goals are.

    I'm currently using both a Sound Blaster and a V22 card (it has
    2 seperate MIDI in's and 2 seperate MIDI outs that are independantly
    addressable). I'm also writing C++ code to manipulate these (the
    package from Voyetra is $35.00 for docs & drivers - supports
    all of the cards that you listed in .0 of this note). If you are
    a C programmer, and already have either Microsoft C or Borland
    Turbo C/C++, coding isn't too hard to deal with. The Voyetra Sequencer
    Plus software is very similar to Cakewalk, except that there is
    some SIMPTE control built in, and it comes with a MIDI JUKEBOX
    function built in (this costs an extra $49.00 for Cakewalk).
    I went with the V22 because it was upgradable to the V24s (basically
    you add to the board, nothing is thrown away). This affected my
    choices of Sequencers. If you want to use Cakewalk, or another
    sequencer that requires different hardware, your choice of MIDI cards
    and features should match your long term needs.

    I personally think that it's a mistake to spend $100.00 on a limited
    function MIDI card (which rules out the low end MPU401 types of
    MIDI interfaces). You'd be better off with a Sound Blaster or a
    higher functionality MPU401 type of card.

    The Voyetra V24s MIDI Card supports LTC and VTC SIMPTE. I'm not
    sure about other MIDI cards. I think that the high end Music Quest
    board does also.

    If you are running on an PC XT (anything with less than a 286 CPU),
    you are asking for trouble if you want to do anything fancy with your
    PC, no matter what MIDI card you are using. You can also run into 
    perfomance problems on a Macintosh, Atari or Amiga if you don't have 
    the processor or memory resources to accomplish your task, so take the
    time to figure out what you'd like to do.

							Jens

    re: .6oh ... I'm so ashamed ... :*
    
    Steve the Humiliated

    Many thanks for all the advice (including the little ricochet into
    SMTPE timecodes!!!).
    
    I guess my ambitions are humble at the moment only because I haven't
    realised the full potential of MIDI to enhance the music I play
    (poorly). All I want to do at the moment is
    
    a) Do a bulk dump of the registration memory in the organ. I could do
    this onto RAM packs but they are even more exotically priced than MIDI
    cards in the UK! I would like to store sets of registrations onto disk
    and to be able to quickly download them back to the organ.
    
    b) Do some really basic sequencing - possibly only recording a chord
    sequence to allow me to put a melody on top afterwards. It is unlikely
    that anybody will ever think my music worth transferring to tape (even
    the cat leaves the room when I switch on) so tape synchronisation will
    be lost on me for the forseeable future.
    
    It sounds like the two recommendations of the PC-Midi card and Sound
    Blaster are valid (I just bemoan the fact that everthing costs twice as
    much in the UK as the US!).
    
    By the way, does anybody know of any software which will - in realtime
    - generate an automatic accompaniment to a chord sequence (like the
    auto-accompaniment built into the organ but with more variations).
    
    
    Thanks Again
    
    Andrew Moore
    

re .9:  Not from personal experience, but look at the notes on Band In A Box.
It may do something like what you want, although maybe not from chords played
on midi-in.

Burns

re: .6

>>>    is this an elitist reply ?

No, it looks more pica-esque to me.

Carry on,

- John -

Andrew,

I'm running a VAXmate with a Music Quest MPU401 plus Band In A Box & a basic 
sequencer (Prism). I think that this will all do _exactly what you want. Give 
me a call & I'll arrange a demo (better contact me via mail BTW).

In fact I've just moved house & it will be months before I'm able to set up all 
my gear agin. You could borrow the whole VAXmate if you like. I'll even throw 
in an SGU or two.

Welcome to the world of MIDI-madness.

Nigel

    Now I know why I like musicians! What a breed!
    
    Thanks Nigel - a mail is in your account.
    
    Andrew