Recommended interface for CPC Midi IN?

[m_dr_m]

I want to connect a Midi Keyboard to ze CPC, for some project of mine which should be ready in 2019.

Which should I take?
- Lambda* by @lambdamike
- CPCBooster by @TotO
- UsiFac II by @ikonsgr
- Other by @PulkoMandy
- Other by other

Ideally it should be able to handle chords.

[HAL6128]

The "Speak & SID" from LambdaMikel has a "MIDI IN & AY Synthesizer" which is easy and ready to use (see link: GitHub - lambdamikel/Speak-SID: A Speech Synthesizer, SID Soundcard, MIDI IN SID+AY Synthesizer for the Amstrad CPC).
TFM and LambdaMikel are developing a MIDI Tracker at the moment. So it seems very mature.


There also a "Ultimiate MIDI Board" from LambdaMikel which has a MIDI IN & OUT board plugged on. (GitHub - lambdamikel/BluePillCPC: An Extension Board for the Amstrad CPC based on the Blue Pill Microcontroller). With this board you are able to play (connect the MIDI datas) to an attached Adlib Soundcard on the back.

[Gryzor]

I really don't think there's anything that will help you have it ready in 2019 to be honest

[GUNHED]

Well, to be done in 2018 I guess there are some alternative I would suggest:
- 1. LambdaMichaels particular MIDI-expansion
- 2. LambdaMichaels LambdaSpeak FS (additional Speech, PCM Sample, MP3 Player, RTC and more)

Also the Symbiface 3 seems to emulate some kind of MIDI device, but I haven't had a closer look, it may be of interest to research that a bit or ask @TMTLOGIC - he's the creator. 

[gflorez]

The SF3 and RSF3 emulate the classic CPC EMR Midi interface. It used a MC6850 UART, very common on these days on similar MIDI interfaces, on several other 8bit computers.
The CPC version was bundled with a very simple 8KB program(+ the static screen) that is not compatible with standard MIDI files, but really does well what it is intended to do: to act like a MIDI recorder/mixer, without interpreting the events it receives. Then, the saved events can be reproduced exactly the same.

The SF3 needs an add-on PCB with the Midi connectors and a few components to connect to external MIDI gear, but the soon to be released RSF3 comes with all included.
I think it can be very easy to use it on new programs. With exactly the same UART, on the MSX scene there are some good examples of programs that manage standard MIDI files.

[m_dr_m]

TFM and LambdaMikel are developing a MIDI Tracker at the moment.

Wow I've missed this info. This is an excellent news.

- How is it developed?
- Is there an expected road map?
- Could I reuse the UI for this project: http://memoryfull.net/post.php?id=39 ? Should I?
(The encoding, player + Special FX support is ready on my side)

[GUNHED]

Wow I've missed this info. This is an excellent news.

- How is it developed?
- Is there an expected road map?
- Could I reuse the UI for this project: http://memoryfull.net/post.php?id=39 ? Should I?
(The encoding, player + Special FX support is ready on my side)

It's still in planning stage. Nearly no code written, but a good description is in this case important instead of just starting to code. It will work with 16 channels and display them all on screen using 6 pixel-width characters. It shall be able to play, record and edit midi data (in which format ever). Still lot's of things need to be decided.

So, yes, we're open and glad for any kind of feature requests, ideas and what every. But I didn't ask this time for reasons. But feel free to provide ideas. They may be beneficial in general. 

[rob]

There is a book from the 80s called MIDI Projects by R A Penfold which describes how to build a MIDI in/out interface for the CPC. I had a go at building one for a lockdown project but the book doesn't go into much detail about software - it shows how to send notes to a keyboard using BASIC and that's about it    It's a fully functional interface though, it could do anything you want if somebody could write the software to support it.


There is a scan of the book here https://archive.org/details/midi-projects-ra-penfoldacme


If you're handy with a soldering iron I could share the PCB files.

[PulkoMandy]

From PulkoTronics your least bad option would be USB-MIDI with the USB port on Albireo. Probably not the most CPU efficient way to do this, but easier to work with for modern MIDI hardware which is sometimes USB only. Also not a great option due to the limited supply of Albireo boards currently available


I think it's better to pick one of the other options.