I wonder, what's the difference between "soundblaster compatible
MIDI interface" (which this card has) and the "General MIDI"
of my keyboard?
"Soundblaster compatible
MIDI interface" means that the game port pin-out of the TerraTec is identical to that of the soundblaster so any midi adapter cable designed for the soundblaster will work with the TerraTec.
General MIDI is the definition of which instruments are available at what index (like grand piano on index 1, strings on 48 etc) as well as a definition of how instrument should talk to each other. Both your keyboard and the TerraTec conforms to this standard.
Do one need some adapter to use the game-port for this
(apart from the cable keyboard <-> soundcard having fitting
ends)?
What you need is an inexpensive cable that has a gamport connector on one end and two MIDI DIN plugs on the other end.
What I find a little perplexing is that the interface transfer
only codes through the connector. It's up to the
receiver to interpret those codes (which it should be
capable of if it's MIDI-compatible I suppose ). But I would
take it the instruments recorded in the computer is defined
by soundsfiles stored there...
Isn't it a problem to get the samples in the computer and in
the keyboard to sound exactly the same? (GrandPiano can
sound different depending on what brand of
keyboard you have, can't it?)
Or am I totally out in the blue here?
You are correct, instrument do sound different depending what brand of keyboard (or soundcard for that matter) you have. But a grandpiano is a grandpiano, so it's not going to sound totally different either. Soundcards and keyboard actually work exactly the same when it comes to MIDI, some even have the exact same chips in them (the EMU10k chip is used in the Soundblaster Live! as well as some EMU keyboards).
