Building MIDI Interfaces 1 IN 1 THRU 3 OUT?

[XDelusion]

I've been scouting around Aminet, looking at all the schematics for building a MIDI interface, and I can not find one like the commercial and home made one's I own.

 One of them has 1 IN and 3 OUTs, where as the other has 1 IN, 1 THRU, and 3 OUTS.

 I hear that Amiga MIDI interfaces have to be built in a certain manner to that they work correctly, so does anyone know of any Amiga specific guides that live up to this standard?

[XDelusion]

I am guessing you are looking for multiple outs? Though you haven't said.
You can run multiple outs from the tx out of the midi interface opto isolator.  Most opto isolators have an in, thru and out pin. You can use the tx out(to pin 5) signal ground(to pin 4), and earth(to pin 2) to multiple midi out sockets. Amiga midi interfaces are much easier to build than the pc equivalent as Amiga can run at the midi baud rate where the pc requires buffering. As far as I can remember.

Yes... an adapter that "lives up to that standard" aka 1 in 1 thru 3 outs.

Is there a guide for this, I don't even know what tx out is.

[XDelusion]

2 Choices:

1. You use one of the aminet schematics and duplicate the connections of the single midi Out to 2 other sockets. Giving you 3 midi outs.  Just wire 3 sockets exactly as if they were each individual out sockets. You can't fit them to the circuit board but you can mount them on short cables in a jiffy box that holds the circuit board.
2. Buy a standard Amiga midi interface with one out and rig up your own triple headed midi out cable. One plug into the interface Midi Out and three cables and plugs coming out of it for your instruments (Midi INs)

I actually built my own Amiga Midi Interface from a schematic and supplied circuit board and I just ran 2 out cables (around a metre long) directly from the circuit board for the single out.  

The standard says all devices should be opto isolated from each other and by doing this you are actually hooking end devices together un-isolated but in all reality if a device or interface blew up or surged the signal earth is most likely gonna carry something nasty whether the signal line is opto isolated or not.  There are many musical instruments that have direct serial connections or com port connections for PCs or Macs with no opto-isolation at all.

PS: You do know you can just use the Thru port of a connected midi instrument to daisy chain a midi cable to another instruments Midi In ?

Alright, I think I get your basic meaning. When I get my pieces in the mail, I'll ask questions and post photos as I go. I'm not a master electrician, but I know enough to do basic Atari 8-Bit mods and the like so I'm sure I can tackle this.

As for MIDI Thru. Maybe I've not tinkered with it enough yet, but lets say I have a midi instrument that my out from the Amiga is going to, and from there I have another instrument connected to it's thru. Since they are both on the same MIDI channel, I'm not sure how to prevent the second instrument from picking up on commands that were intended for the 1st. Though as I say, maybe I've not messed with the thru feature enough yet.

[XDelusion]

OK guys, thanks! I'm working ALL day today so I'll try to do some experiments with daisy chaining tomorrow. In the mean time, is it also possible to take the same aproach with the MIDI interface and create multiple inputs as well?

[XDelusion]

But could you please explain what are you trying to achieve?

  This is where the fun begins.

 First and foremost, I am not a trained muscian first and foremost, the majority of what I have learned has come from having what little rythm I have within me, spending hours experimenting with my gear, youtube tutorials, and of course by talking with people like you.

 My gear collection has built up over time and is pretty diverse in nature. Some of it is meant for more traditional musick, while other pieces seem to be designed with DJ's in mind...

...I don't want to be a DJ or make dance musick for that matter (unless by mistake), but I do want to take these DJ tools and incorporate them into my composisitions and experiments so that I can attempt to realize some of the ideas I have in my head or come to me in response to my mood of the day.

 So in short, some of the gear can be used as controllers, some not. Some are traditional (drum pads, keys), others not (Kaos pads). The keys and drum pads I've learned my way through, but the Kaos pad is something I'm still figuring out in some regards, such as how to record my finger movements as notation data inside of OctaMED S.S. or HD-Rec.

 NOTE: HD-Rec not currently installed, I'm using my A600 till my 1200 gets back from repair.

 I'll create a list of my gear so that you better understand what I've got:

MicroKorg, Korg KP3, Korg Kaossilator Pro, Akai MPX8 SD Sample Pad, Arturia Microbrute, and the Yamaha FB-01.

As for the instruments that will be used live, or for creating samples on the KP3 or Kaossilator Pro, I have:

Korg Wavedrum, Alesis Samplepad, and of course Korg's MP-DS Plus and M01 for the Nintendo DSiXL, as well as Electroplankton.

See album here:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/album.php?albumid=191


Dunno if that helps or makes things more confusing, but there is what I got. As for using some of this with the Amiga, I've been doing that already, it's just the chain that it looks like I need to experiement more with, well that and the settings on the KP3 and Kaossilator Pro.

[XDelusion]

Sounds like to me all you need is a master control keyboard on the input side, and maybe a drum pad for triggering all external rhythm machines (could be done with a keyboard, but a drum pad is more natural).  

Not sure about the Kaossilator.  Didn't know those even had MIDI out. Maybe you have the Pro?

You probably wouldn't want to control that from a keyboard because it has it's own unique way of creating sounds with the pad.

That's exactly why I want to control with the Kaossilator and KP3. I can trigger the sample banks, as well as have the Amiga manipulate effects on the Kaos pad as it goes through and plays the song, hence adding in the right amount of effect not to mention the right effect at the same exact point in the song every time.

I just woke up from a long cat nap, so now I can finally do some experimenting some more.

[XDelusion]

Saturday just ended up sucking, plus I got busy, angry, depressed, etc. So no motivation to mess with gear.
Sunday, more depression and anger.
Monday, I make moves to resolve my anger and sorrow, still sad, but what can you do, so I messed with my gear to get my mind off of things.

Presently I have the Microbrute's IN port connected to the Yamaha's THRU port. I changed instrument #1 on the Yamaha from MIDI 1 to MIDI 9. I then tested each channel on OctaMED and both play back as they should without issue. Cool I'm one step closer, so thanks to all who have helped in this thread!

As for the using my KORG effects processors as both input and output devices, I'm still trying to work that out and am currently reading through the manual to see how to pull this off and furthermore if OctaMED is capable of talking to it in this manner, as I am starting to think that only modern PC software can pull off such a task, but hopefully I am wrong.

The MicroKorg will soon be added to the experiement, but it is still in pieces till I can get to town to pick up the new wood siding that I want to put on it (in relation to my MicroKorg MOD).