USB Midi Cable

I have an old Sound Blaster Live card, which has the 15 pin midi connection. I now need a new midi cable to connect my keyboard to my computer. I have come across USB midi cables and I am wondering how these work. I always thought that a soundcard with a midi connection was necessary if you want your keyboard to communicate directly into your software notation program, in order to do "step editing". Maybe I have been wrong about this though. I read this from a website:

If you have an available USB port, you can use a MIDI to USB connector. This is a more expensive but simpler, high speed, no-fuss solution. This is ideal if you want to use your laptop. Most USB interfaces are fully Plug-and-Play so will work without any further software configuration.

Does this mean that I do not even need a soundcard with a midi connection?

The old school way was, from my understanding, that the sound card interpreted the raw MIDI data and turned it into sound. Nowadays, the USB port has made it a lot simpler to work with PC accessories. The chord no longer hooks up to the sound card. So in theory, yes, you don't need a sound card because the data is interpreted in the connector inself and turned into data that the computer can read. This data goes into your notation program.

But realize that no sound card = no sound. Not a good idea when thinking about music.

But realize that no sound card = no sound. Not a good idea when thinking about music.

Very interesting. I realize I need a sound card, but I suppose I then do not need to purchase a soundcard with a 15 pin midi connection. You can see I have been a little behind on this sort of technology for quite some time. Yay, for USB!

Very interesting. I realize I need a sound card, but I suppose I then do not need to purchase a soundcard with a 15 pin midi connection. You can see I have been a little behind on this sort of technology for quite some time. Yay, for USB!

Yes. I'll bet within 10 years, MIDI itself will be obsolete. USB has taken over most of the external connections. Printers, DSL boxes, video, audio, external memory, some screens, external mouses/keyboards etc. All being done by USB. I remember the good ol' days where printers were actually connected by that huge socket thingy.

And BTW, that USB to MIDI thing ain't expenseive from my last check, $20 I think.

Something like this: M-AUDIO - Uno - 1-In/1-Out USB Bus-Powered MIDI Interface

For $40.

The chord no longer hooks up to the sound card.

Spoken like a true musician.

MIDI cables are obsolete. Don't use them. They're there if you have no other option. USB is significantly better. If your keyboard only has a MIDI output I would go by price when figuring out how to hook it up. Adapting your MIDI cable to a USB will not give you any performance benefits. If you can find a sound card with your connection on it and it's cheaper than the adapters, go that way.

Spoken like a true musician.

I don't get it.

I don't get it.

chord != cord :)

chord != cord :)

Oh. Duh.

would it still input on a MIDI channel? So if I use this, I could use it as a MIDI controller still, even if tis hooked up via USB?

would it still input on a MIDI channel? So if I use this, I could use it as a MIDI controller still, even if tis hooked up via USB?

I switched over to USB "midi" cables last year and have had no problems with it.

I also use Midi<->USB cables/converters, bla bla, it works pretty good. In fact, in some devices it's the only real way to get full access to the device's possibilities (like data management, bla bla bla.) though then it's not a midi->USB cable but the device is USB ready anyways.

I guess it also depends on how many USB devices you have running at the same time. All of them have to share the same bandwidth and power support, so the more you have running, the more unreliable/slow they can get. E.g. plugging your midi controller into an USB port with 10 other USB devices for a Live-concert might be somewhat risky. In such a case you might be more on the safe side with a MIDI cable, plugged into the MIDI port of your computer. But otherwise USB will do at least as well as MIDI.

(Another advantage of MIDI might be that you can easily connect several devices in a MIDI chain, whereas with an USB connection everything always goes over a computer. This might be slower/more complicated for some uses than a setup of MIDI devices in a circle. But I'm not experienced enough with this, so these are just guesses.)

I guess it also depends on how many USB devices you have running at the same time. All of them have to share the same bandwidth and power support, so the more you have running, the more unreliable/slow they can get. E.g. plugging your midi controller into an USB port with 10 other USB devices for a Live-concert might be somewhat risky. In such a case you might be more on the safe side with a MIDI cable, plugged into the MIDI port of your computer. But otherwise USB will do at least as well as MIDI.

Um. The only real problem is voltage, and you only get it if you're using hubs connected to hubs, etc. Otherwise, bandwidth shouldn't be an issue.

From wikipedia:

Additional USB hubs may be included in the tiers, allowing branching into a tree structure, subject to a limit of 5 levels of tiers. A USB host may have multiple host controllers and each host controller may provide one or more USB ports. Up to 127 devices, including the hub devices, may be connected to a single host controller.

This is without degradation of quality on behalf of data transfer, THOUGH it means you're making up for the power loss across device hubs. :>

PS: OF COURSE, though, it depends largely on what devices are in use, how much bandwidth they take, etc etc. You CAN run out of bandwidth way before the 127 theoretical limit.

PS2: Oh, also, generally PCs have more than one USB host controller, so that furthers the limit of devices + bandwidth.

Maybe its just me, but i found there is a slight delay from when I play to when it records. I don't know if this has to do with the USB connection or not, but that's all I can surmise.

Yeah, it is.

Check your latency settings.

It could be any number of things, from software lag to faulty cables, LOL.

Something like this: M-AUDIO - Uno - 1-In/1-Out USB Bus-Powered MIDI Interface

For $40.

Might be a dumb question, but is this compatible with a PC? And lets say I was to own it: does this mean I could play something on my keyboard, and on finale it would appear in notes? "Live Play"?

Might be a dumb question, but is this compatible with a PC? And lets say I was to own it: does this mean I could play something on my keyboard, and on finale it would appear in notes? "Live Play"?

See that little "PC" icon on the site this link points to, right next to the "Mac" icon? :P So, yes.

And yes, you can use this to input notes into Finale. However, I'd advice against using it to play in things rhythmically with the HyperScribe function, unless your music is rhythmically very simple and you play very exactly. Otherwise you'll end up being much slower, since you'll have to correct lots of rhythms which the computer "misunderstood", making the whole process rather annoying. (And quantisation also only makes sense for rhythmically very simple music.)

It's generally much better just to use the midi keyboard for the pitches and entering the durations "manually". Use either simple entry or quick entry with your keyboard to enter the pitches, your numpad to enter the durations and other keyboard/mouse commands for articulations, dynamics, expressions, etc. Personally, I always use simple entry, which, despite the names, I actually find faster for my purposes than quick entry.

See that little "PC" icon on the site this link points to, right next to the "Mac" icon? :P So, yes.

Haha...oops.

As to your explanation, i thought someone would tell me that. I used the keyboard - sibelius method at school, and yea...i clearly do not play rhytmically well.

STupid programs. I wish they would just play the way I want them to.