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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hey folks, I've got an old Toshiba Satellite 430CDS running Windows 98. I'd like to find a MIDI option that'd work with both Adlib Tracker 2 and Fasttracker 2. I've seen bot PCMCIA cards and other options (parallel port MIDI) and I'm wondering if anyone has any information about the compatibility of these two programs with these various options.

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Planet Zaxxon

Well, adlib tracker II has no midi implementation. I'm currently studying to see how one could do so though, and code it. I'll see ya in 2044.

The Midiman Portman PC/P is a dos-based midi device that runs off the parallel port. I have one, but never messed with it really yet.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Oh, guess I hadn't looked closely enough at Adlib.  So far I haven't had too much trouble just syncing stuff up by hand but it can be a little nerve-wracking in a live setting.

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Tokyo, Japan

02star I have vague memories of you telling my Adlib 2 has really odd timing which isn't internally consistent?

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Planet Zaxxon

Yes, its not consistant really. when I record seperate tracks and try to line up manually, they fall out of sync by the end.. Plus, when you have lots of stuff going on, it will slow the program down.

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San Francisco

i recall there being a computer that offered midi for adlib chip with a program. it came with the midi outports and everything.

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Planet Zaxxon
wedanced wrote:

i recall there being a computer that offered midi for adlib chip with a program. it came with the midi outports and everything.

yea the yamaha cx5m

it doesnt have as much as control as adlib tracker, its bascially the same sound chip as the FB01.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Yeah, I love adlib for it's control and tracker interface access to FM but it's difficult to use with other devices or software because of it's BPM drift. I was hoping a MIDI sync option would help. Well, I know that FT2 has MIDI so I'll have to see if one of those options you pointed out will do what I need it to.

Thanks a bunch!

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Dublin, Ireland

Necrobump, because Adlib Tracker II got open sourced, and now has some form of MIDI support.
I haven't been able to figure out if there's sync or it just responds to notes...

http://code.google.com/p/at2/

Hadn't notice anyone talking about it on here yet, so I thought it might be worth a mention.

Now I really must get it working on my Librettos.

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Chicago IL

that looks awesome, but it says the MIDI function uses MPU-401, which is a windows driver

so does that mean there's no way to use MIDI with an actual SB16 card? or does this give you a way to use the SB16 through windows instead of DOS?

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Unsubscribe

Isnt MPU-401 the joystick port? Its a "standard"

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Chicago IL

I dunno, all i can find about it is "Windows MPU-401 Driver" and similar stuff. how do i use that shit I WANT TO KNOW.

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uhajdafdfdfa

you need the gameport to midi cable that was common but now you probably have to get it from ebay or somewhere, and then you plug it into your gameport (onto your soundcard) and hurray you are using mpu 401

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Chicago IL

aw man my opl3 laptop doesnt have a gameport.

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Planet Zaxxon

yea the MPU-401 is just some old midi tech.. that was out during the dos era.. its what you would use to control your sweet MT-32 module and hear the Kings Quest gameplay music how it was meant to be heard....

Impulse tracker has an option where you can run it in MPU-401 mode.. and it will either playback the general midi built into the sb16 or you can use it as MIDI OUT to control other devices.... I guess its emulated the mpu-401 in that case, but I tried it all out with a parallel port midi device and it all worked using midi out features..

but adlib tracker open source now ?? HOT DIGGITY DOG..

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Dublin, Ireland

I know practically nothing about these things but the MPU-401 seems to be a bit of a complicated issue, it appears to be included as a gameport, actually build on to some opl3 cards, which would indicate that it won't be on a lot of laptops (I assume). Also it seems to of been it's own interface card/box and a lot of variants and compatible products were about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPU-401

And a quick search through a Libretto maintenance manual turned up this:

Libretto 50-70 Maint Manual wrote:

Sound Controller The Libretto 50CT uses one OPL3-SA2 that incorporates: OPL3 FM synthesizer,
Digital Analog Converter (DAC), and MPU401 MIDI interface.
∗The Libretto 70CT uses one OPL3-SA3 that incorporates: OPL3 FM synthesizer, Digital Analog Converter (DAC), and MPU401 MIDI interface.

Wondering how that works exactly, considering the Libretto port replicator lacks the 15-pin gameport... hmm