MIDI from a Miracle - Part 1: Hardware
June 21st, 2006
On a recent run by home, I recieved a Miracle Piano keyboard (part of the Miracle Piano Teaching System. It is more than eight years old - more than ten, probably. It apparently can connect to both The Nintendo Entertainment system (special cord) and Older PCs (to a 9-pin serial port).
It’s a solid piece of hardware. Even more solid then it’s transformer, which fried about a year ago. Of course, lightning can do that.
The Miracle FAQ put me on the path to a proper replacement - the Radio Shack 273-1631, At 12VAC (that’s AC, not DC - this thing runs on alternating current) and 800mA. It can run at a lower voltage and amperage, my parents found out (9VAC and 760mA), but it will have some wierd consequences.
So I can play now. But I want to record.
And for a piece of “educational” hardware, you can be happy that the keyboard sends out signals in Standard MIDI. And two ways to get it:
- A propriatary serial port - 25 pins, to reduce to 9 (serial) or 15 (Joystick/MIDI) - but I am not trying to build a cable for that sort of connection
- Two MIDI ports - In and Out
Enter the USB bridge. The Voyetra USB Music Studio Kit includes one of these, with a standard USB connection on one end, and a set of MIDI connections on the other. It is the most readily available at the moment, because Best Buy stores usually have one or two in stock. It even includes Windows software for recording MIDI, if that was my objective - but that is another post.
The only trick with connecting the cable is to remember that the computer’s MIDI in is the Keyboards’s MIDI out. I would guess this is the same for all MIDI controllers. So plug the In into the Out, and you’ll be fine.
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