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Good (cheap) soundcard with MIDI in connection?

fitzhue

fitzhue

Golden Member
Hello everyone, my friend was asking me today about a way to hook up his piano to his computer to record music that he plays. I looked at the back and there was some mono outputs and a midi output for a computer. I would guess that the MIDI output would be the best connection for the computer, but his soundcard doesn't have any midi inputs. I told him it would be good to get a relatively cheap soundcard with MIDI inputs. Do u guys know of any?

I mean i know the SB Live and Audigy series cards have MIDI inputs via some sort of breakout box, but he doesn't need all that processing and gaming power. He just needs something that has a MIDI input. Gaming effects is of absolutely no consideration, but decent sound quality is definitely a must.

Can anyone help me find a good sound card for him? Maybe recommend some good brands? Thanks everyone

Fitzhue
 
If he has a soundcard with a JOYSTICK port, he should have MIDI via the same port. What you need is a Joystick/MIDI "Y" cable or breakout box. Available in lots of places, except for perhaps BestBuy/FutureShop. Go to a keyboard/music store (or phone them about it...)
Should be $10 tops. 🙂

If for some reason he doesn't have a "gamers" sound card, cheap (but good) C-Media PCI cards can be had well under $20.
 
Ok that sounds good but can u explain this cable again to me? It used the gameport on the soundcard (which I believe he had) and then that connects to what? And if i get this cable, how would i go about recording the music? thanks
 
I think you're confused between MIDI and AUDIO. MIDI is note data. That's it. Note information for turning on and off notes as you bang away on the piano keyboard you've hooked up. That note information is recorded and can be sent back out to the keyboard if that keyboard has onboard sounds that can be played.

So you plug your nifty MIDI cable to the joystick port of the sound card and you now have a round DIN plug to jam into the back of the keyboard. You can now record the information played in and can either play that note information on the same keyboard or using the computer's own internal sounds (which will vary in quality depending on the sound card.)

That help a bit? 😉 There's no AUDIO recording involved, like that of recording a person howling into a microphone.
 
Sweet thanks a lot bluemax, that helps out a lot. Ill go to the music store in a bit and see if they have it.
 
For some reason I had trouble finding this cable (MIDI to joystick port), but I found one at Best Buy for $20. It comes inside a software box by Voyetra. bluemax is right, the joystick port carries both MIDI input/output. If you want to record the music, you will need a synthesizer, either hardware or software. The SoundBlaster Live/Audigy series uses SoundFont 2 sound banks which you can load instrument samples. I haven't used it but I heard it works OK. You can find a Live! OEM for around $35. There are some really good software synthesizers like Gigastudio but they are expensive.
 
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