
MIDI Keyboard on Sound Blaster HOWTO 1.0

1. Copyright
2. Introduction
3. Requirements
4. Adding supports of your kernel
5. Installing software

1. Copyright
This document is written by Hideki Saito.  Reposting is
allowed, but please do not modify this.  Please ask before
publishing this document.

You can contact me via E-mail at hideki@eskimo.com

2. Introduction
Some people may wonder how to use a MIDI keyboard with Sound Blaster.  
Actually, this is not as easy as just connecting the MIDI keyboard to a 
15-pin MIDI in-out port (the Sound Blaster MIDI in-out port often works 
as a joystick port.)

3. Requirements
Of course you need a MIDI keyboard.  Please take a little time to check 
to see if you have a MIDI in-out port on the back of your sound card.  If 
you see a port that has 15 little holes, you have a MIDI in-out port. 
Some of the Sound Blaster clones may not have a MIDI in-out port.  In
This case, you may want to consider buying a new sound card, or MIDI 
interface card.  You can adopt things in this document if the MIDI 
interface card that you are planning to buy, other-wise this document 
will not help, since it is out of your range.  You will need am 
SB-to-MIDI cable (this will cost about $15-$40, depending on length, and  
quality of the cable).  Remember to connect one end of the MIDI out cable 
into the MIDI-in port on your MIDI keyboard, and other end of the MIDI-in 
cable into the MIDI out port on your MIDI keyboard.  Connect other side 
of keyboard into the 15-pin MIDI in-out board on your sound card.  After 
that, you need to check if your joystick/MIDI is enabled, other-wise this 
will not work.  There are two types of sound cards.  If your sound card 
uses hardware configuration, you need to open your computer and change 
the switchs (this maybe jumpers) to enable.  If you have a sound card 
that is software configurable, you can run a program to change it.  You 
might need to boot DOS if your configure program is on DOS.

4. Adding supports of your kernel
Of course your kernel must support sounds.  Have your sound card manual 
and check each configuration.  Then run a kernel configuring program. You 
need Sound Blaster support (this varies, but most Sound Blaster clones 
will work fine with this setting).  According to my settings, you need to add
MPU-401 support, and MIDI interface support in addition. Make sure 
addresses are correct, otherwise there will be conflicts.  Read your 
manual and check each base address,IRQ (on many sound cards, the default is 330, IRQ 7).  Make
sure that you set so both two MPU-401 I/O correctly (those numbers must 
be same).  Menu configuration of the kernel would help this.  After you 
configured them, you need to rebuild the kernel and image.

5. Installing software
After this, you can install your favorite MIDI sequencing programs.  I 
will not discuss them in here.  If you have no ideas, use the program 
JAZZ!, which is an excellent MIDI sequencing program.  You can find it at 
SunSite and a lot of other sites.  Also installing PlayMidi is 
recommended. After all, everything should work fine.

