Korg AG-10 Directly Connected to Amiga Serial

[gertsy]

Hi all, I was reading the manual for my old Korg AG-10 (Audio Gallery) GM/GS compatible Midi Module when I found the pinouts for the direct PC Interface cable I no longer use on my PC.  
30 minutes later it's directly connected to my A4000 and pumping out 32 voice poly Midi from Bars and Pipes.    Who needs a Midi Interface.  (Though I have one for my Amiga).
I've included 2 photos.  1 of the pin outs for the AG10 9 pin serial cable. I used a standard 9pin Serial to 25pin Serial adaptor for the Amiga(which works fine)  
The other pic is of the PC1 Interface settings.

If you have a Korg 01/W Workstation/Synth it's the same/simular as the AG-10, though I'm not sure it has the PC interface.

For Posterity.  Once more.
PC 1 Interface Settings:
Async 31,250 Baud (31.25Kbps). 8 bit. 1 Stop Bit, No Parity.

[golem]

That's cool. Thanks for the info. I have a Roland XP-10 which also has a mini DIN serial which you can use instead of MIDI and I have one of them 25 > 9 pin adaptors. I will have to check the manual and give it a try. I am another Bars and Pipes user. It's brill.

[LoadWB]

The biggest thing about the MIDI interfaces to the serial port is the conversion of RS-232C/EIA-232 -12/+12 voltages to 5V TTL and the electrical isolation by the opto-isolators (photo-couplers) to prevent ground loops.

If not concerned about ground loops you could do the voltage conversions with a couple of transistors and resistors (as with modem interfaces for the 64/128's User Port) as RS-232C/EIA-232 sees logic-low around 3V or so and a logic-high at -3V or less (though many modems accept a direct pull to ground as a negative voltage, and a lot of them are TTL-tolerant.)  Better is to use a pairing of 1488 and 1489 ICs or these days the MAX232.

[gertsy]

The biggest thing about the MIDI interfaces to the serial port is the conversion of RS-232C/EIA-232 -12/+12 voltages to 5V TTL and the electrical isolation by the opto-isolators (photo-couplers) to prevent ground loops.

If not concerned about ground loops you could do the voltage conversions with a couple of transistors and resistors (as with modem interfaces for the 64/128's User Port) as RS-232C/EIA-232 sees logic-low around 3V or so and a logic-high at -3V or less (though many modems accept a direct pull to ground as a negative voltage, and a lot of them are TTL-tolerant.)  Better is to use a pairing of 1488 and 1489 ICs or these days the MAX232.

I'm not concerned. The opto-isolators are inside the AG-10.

[gertsy]

That's cool. Thanks for the info. I have a Roland XP-10 which also has a mini DIN serial which you can use instead of MIDI and I have one of them 25 > 9 pin adaptors. I will have to check the manual and give it a try. I am another Bars and Pipes user. It's brill.

B&P was certainly good for its time. Same as Tiger Cub was.  I liked Tiger Cub more because you could easily integrate sampled sounds into the instrument list. (But it only had 12 tracks)
I use Sonar X3 (2014) on Win10 now with an M-Audio Fast Tracks Pro.
These days Sonar (CakeWalk) sells on a subscription model and have been acquired..sigh..  If you can pick up and register an old version of X3 for cheap you can set up an impressive Win10 DAW for cheap.