Well. . . I just bought a new laptop and don't have a game port for my midi cable now. Is anyone aware of a USB to MIDI cable and driver? And if so, where can I find one in the USA? I really don't want to use the serial host port cable for the Technics KN5000.

You can get a USB/midi interface for about $70 US. You can also get a PCMCIA interface for about $100. Fran Carango has one, I think.Check out the usual catalog shops or call a reputable friend/dealer like our pal George Kaye in California!
KAYELAND@aol.com

Hi Bob,

Nice to see your post on the board.

I use a simple USB to Midi MidiSport 2 X 2
http://www.midiman.com/product.htm

manufactered by Midiman. It works great for connecting my KN5000 to my PC & Cakewalk.
If you only need one midi in/out then the MidiSport 1 X 1
http://www.midiman.com/product.htm

should meet your needs and is cheaper too.

You can purchase the MidiSport 2 x 2 at zSounds for $79.95 and the MidiSport 1 x 1 for $55.95. I "personally" recommend the MidiSport 2 x 2 model because it is more ruggedly contructed and allows for more midi flexibility. Both should work fine though.
http://www.zzounds.com/searchresults.music?z=995983245183&l=1&b=p&w=midisport&x=15&y=3

Scott

California (SF Bay Area),USA

Bob,
I carry the Roland Edirol UM-1 simple USB interface cable. It includes the windows 98 and Windows 2000 drivers and Macintosh driver for OMS and FreeMid. The price is $55.00 if you are interested. You can also buy a two in and two out, but most of my customers are just wanting the simple one and one unit. It is approx. 3" long by 2" deep and gets it's power from the PC.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

What's the advantage of these midi devices over, say, plugging midi into your soundblaster?

Thanks very much, Uncle Dave, Scott, and George. I think the simple Roland interface that George describes will work fine. I only use a single midi device (KN5000) with Pro Audio 9 and Cakewalk Pro 8.0. Your help is appreciated. George, I will send a separate email.

Beakybird, I'm not sure I understand your question, but if you are trying to compare the use of a USB to MIDI cable vs a game port to MIDI cable (that could plug into the game port of a PC sound card or an I/O card), there is no real difference. Midi is Midi no matter how it is connected between the keyboard and the PC. Most newer laptops have no game port or other midi interface support and the USB interface is the only thing available that I am aware of. Recording digital audio via the analog audio in/out of a sound card is an entirely different thing and is not a midi issue.

Bob,

Minor corrections here: Most new MIDI equipment items also come with "To Host" serial MIDI ports that can connect directly to serial ports of laptop/desktop PCs without the use of extra MIDI interface. There are also older parallel-to-MIDI interfaces that the laptop can use besides USB and PCMCIA MIDI interfaces. USB devices are more flexible and less problematic in setup than traditional serial/parallel devices since there is no need to set individual system interrupt numbers on the devices - no interrupt conflicts. We can daisy-chain up to 127 devices (theoretically) in a USB bus; USB version 2 can achieve 480 Mbps, even higher than Firewire/IEEE 1394's 400 Mbps.

Paul Ip
from Texas

Thank you Paul. Yes, as I said at the start of this thread, I don't like the host port option. It often leads to conflicts in system setups. I don't like the PCMCIA stuff because it is too small and easy to break. So USB is the only way as far as I am concerned.

Bob,
I use both the PCMCIA (for midi output) and the Serial/host (for midi INput) - never had a conflict with my laptop. I alternate between the two for playback when I get bored but I prefer the PCMCIA because of the small connecter and slim cable - it's by far the least combersome to use with an outboard sound source.