Conference napalm::commusic_v1

246.0. "Homemade AMIGA/MIDI Interface" by BUFALO::RAVAN () Mon Feb 17 1986 12:16

Earlier in this notes file, I indicated that I was interested in
building a MIDI interface for the AMIGA since it was taking all
the manufacturers so long to produce one (note 210, deleted).
After looking at the spec, I entered a note asking for help from
some readers who were more hardware-wise than I (note 212).
I would like to thank everyone who responded to that note. But
I would especially like to thank Christofer deHahn for his very
clear explanation of the circuit.  With his explanation in hand,
Jeff Arnold and I were able to go off and build a MIDI interface
for the AMIGA.  Jeff actually built it; I just provided some money
and encouragement.

We fired it up this weekend AND IT WORKED!!!  I am now talking to
a CZ-101 (which I bought for two reasons: (a) I didn't want to risk
either the DX-7 or the Mirage so I bought the last one at Daddy's
Junky Music Store in Nashua for $285 and (b) I really wanted to play
with a synth that used phase distortion DCOs).

Now the rest of the music support stuff I want is a SMOP (Simple Matter
Of Programming).  I have just begun to learn what I can and cannot do
in Lattice C to do an adequate job of real time keyboard capture.  Pretty
enlightening.  I haven't had to resort to macro yet, but I might have to
if I want to get better time resolution or want to capture controller input
from the pitch wheel and such.

If anyone else would be interested in what we finally built, send me Email
and we will send you a schematic.  It is very simple, but slightly different
from the exact circuit in the MIDI spec.  And the total cost?  About $15 for
parts.

Happy regards,
-jim

Good work Jim!

I can see it now in the back pages of _Keyboard_ magazine:

	RAVANmusic: turn your AMIGA into a full function MIDI sequencer!

You might be one of the first people to actually have something real on the
market.

		Derek
                     

Congratulations, Jim.

	When you get some of that software written and some patches set up,
I'd like to get up there and check out this setup.

Christofer deHhan