MIDI Adapter Cable (~6ft Long) Connect your MIDI keyboard
to your PC computer
If you have a MIDI sequencer and keyboard, and all you need is a cable to connect them, look no further than Et Cetera's MIDI Adapter Cable. Simply connect one end of the cable to your computer's joystick port, and the other to your MIDI keyboard, and you're ready to start making music.
The MIDI Adapter Cable connects to your Sound Card's Joystick/MIDI port providing a MIDI IN and MIDI OUT. This allows you to use MIDI Keyboards and MIDI Synths with your PC.
Provides:
A 15-pin male connector that attaches to your sound card Joystick/MIDI port.
A pair of 5-pin DIN male MIDI connectors (1 MIDI IN, 1 MIDI OUT).
A 15-pin Joystick connector. Contains OPTO-isolator
Typical Usage
Connect the 15 pin male connector (the large rectangular end with pins) to the 15 pin joystick (or game port) connector on your soundcard.
Connect the 5 pin "MIDI OUT" plug to the "MIDI IN" on your keyboard or MIDI device
Connect the 5 pin "MIDI IN" plug to the "MIDI OUT" on your keyboard or MIDI device
Set up your software to use the external MIDI device. This step depends on your software, but usually you will find a menu item called "Set-up", " MIDI preferences", "devices", "Options" or "Equipment."
a) If you want the sound to be produced by your keyboard, set the "Output Driver" to use the driver with the words "MIDI OUT", "MPU-401" or "EXTERNAL MIDI" in it. Unfortunately, this port is called something different on each sound card. For example, on the Sound Blaster cards it is usually called "SB MIDI OUT".
b) If you want the computer to "listen" or record from your keyboard, set the "Input Driver" to use the driver with the words "MIDI IN", "MPU-401" or "EXTERNAL MIDI" in it. Unfortunately, this port is called something different on each sound card. For example, on the Sound Blaster cards it is usually called "SB MIDI IN".
Why do MIDI IN jacks connect to MIDI OUT jacks? It makes more sense to connect a MIDI IN jack to a MIDI IN jack. After all, they're both labeled IN. Same goes for MIDI OUT to MIDI OUT.
The accepted way actually makes a lot of sense. Think about it. You want MIDI data to go out of your controller and in to your sound module. After all, you wouldn't connect the audio out jack of your sound module to the outputs of your mixer, would you? No, you connect the audio output to an audio (mixer) input. And then you connect the mixer outputs to the inputs of your amplifier. And then you connect the amp's speaker outputs to the speaker inputs. Same thing with MIDI. Think of MIDI data as "flowing" in the same way that audio signals "flow" through your audio system.
