Xref: utzoo rec.music.synth:4662 sci.electronics:3885
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!rutgers!att!mtunb!dmt
From: dmt@mtunb.ATT.COM (Dave Tutelman)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: El-Cheapo MIDI interface for the PClone
Message-ID: <1306@mtunb.ATT.COM>
Date: 23 Sep 88 11:14:55 GMT
References: <1160@ucsd.EDU>
Reply-To: dmt@mtunb.UUCP (Dave Tutelman)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs - Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 46

In article <1160@ucsd.EDU> brian@ucsd.EDU (Brian Kantor) writes:
>Recently I got interested in building a MIDI interface for an IBM
>PClone....
>Being of un-sound mind (PUN!) and thin wallet, I decided to see how
>I could build a MIDI interface for real cheap.  Turns out that
>PClone serial interface adapter boards seem to be a drug on the
>market: there are lots of them out there for real cheap.  So how
>to adapt one to MIDI? Watch:
>  ....
>
>Software is something I'm still playing with, so I'll not include any
>here....
>It's virtually certain that commercial MIDI software packages
>can't use this interface, since it'll be at the wrong address at least.
>Sorry 'bout that.

Bravo, Brian.  A nice design.  But you're right; commercial software
doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of running on it.
Which brings me to.....

Some of us have built the BYTE MIDI board (Kubicky article in BYTE
June '86), which shares that problem.  We've been hacking our own
code.  I've designed a program interface (think of it as C functions
or BIOS functions; both are available), intended for maximum
portability among I/O boards.  I'll be glad to send the specs for it
(and perhaps even the source code) on request.

FEATURES:
   -	"Functional", non-hardware-specific MIDI I/O, like send_midi_byte
	or receive_midi_message.
   -	Timer and timestamping built into the functions.  Implementation
	can be on-board (Kubicky's board has an 8253 on it) or in
	software (Kantor's board doesn't).
   -	The implementation in PC Assembler has isolated board dependencies
	in a few places; most of it should work with "any" board.

I'd like to propose this interface as one we could use for any
PD/Freeware/Shareware software that springs from this newsgroup.

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