Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!jhunix!barrett
From: barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Need advice on MIDI box...
Message-ID: <5730@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Date: 3 Jul 90 13:22:44 GMT
References: <46200090@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: barrett@jhunix.UUCP (Dan Barrett)
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF
Lines: 42

In article <46200090@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> jhc00614@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:

> I just purchased ... part of a beginner MIDI system.  I guess all I need
>now are cables and a Midi box.  What's the best one for best cost?

	All Amiga MIDI interfaces are identical in function, except for
the number of INs and OUTs.  I use the Golden Hawk interface, and other
folks I know use the ECE.

	At some point, there will be MIDI interfaces with extra capabilities,
like SMPTE.  Not yet.

>So far, it seems Perfect Sound is the most popular...

	Perfect Sound and AMAS are sound samplers, not MIDI interfaces.
These are totally unrelated items.  Send me e-mail about this if you have
any questions on the differenes.

>btw, are the # of Midi outs very important?

	Not terribly, unless you have lots of MIDI instruments.  You can
hook up multiple MIDI instruments to a single MIDI OUT on your computer
by daisy-chaining the instruments:

	AMIGA OUT	--> synth1 IN
	synth1 THRU	--> synth2 IN
	synth2 THRU	--> synth3 IN
		...

In the future, maybe a piece of software will support multiple MIDI OUTs on
a single MIDI interface, giving you access to more than 16 MIDI channels.
(You can do it right now if you have multiple serial ports, though.)  But
right now, multiple MIDI OUT's on the same interface simply pass two
identical copies the MIDI data.

                                                        Dan

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