Commodore MK-10 Midi Keyboard

[NextElement88]

I just picked up an old school Commodore MK-10 Midi keyboard for cheap off one of my friends..

It has a standard MIDI out port in the back and I have a MIDI to USB cable connecting it to my PC...The red powerlight has come on but I am just trying to figure out how to get this working in Windows XP. Does anyone out there know if I can get this working on a modern PC/XP?...Is there any drivers/software out there to get this installed and for windows to recognize the hardware?

 

[grahamprie]

Commodore Keyboard.

I just picked up an old school Commodore MK-10 Midi keyboard for cheap off one of my friends..

It has a standard MIDI out port in the back and I have a MIDI to USB cable connecting it to my PC...The red powerlight has come on but I am just trying to figure out how to get this working in Windows XP. Does anyone out there know if I can get this working on a modern PC/XP?...Is there any drivers/software out there to get this installed and for windows to recognize the hardware?

Hi,

I've just stripped one of these for spares and I just thought you might like to know what it can actually do...

It's about the most basic possible keyboard scanner which sends MIDI key-down and key-up data out through a MIDI port.

There is no way to alter the MIDI channel it transmits on and no way to add any other control values to the data stream.

As long as it's getting power, and the key contacts are still working, it will transmit.

The chip which scans the keys was used in several products and actually scans a possible maximum of 64 keys all the time - it doesn't care if there are less available to scan in whichever product it was used in.

A MIDI to USB adapter should allow you to receive the data on a PC, provided you have suitable software installed and set up the relevant input port configuration.

I only use 'real' MIDI ports, so I can't advise on that side of things.

If you have a musical keyboard which accepts MIDI input to drive the internal voice generators, this keyboard should play 'straight-in' if connected by a standard MIDI cable.

I have quite large fingers, so the keys are too small for me, but you should be able to use it for note input into a sequencer, etc without too much trouble.

I hope this helps...

Graham.

 

[hollandturbine]

Conventional MIDI doesn't require drivers like USB and so your computer will not detect anything, this is actually a good thing because it means you can still use MIDI hardware from 1986 just as it worked back then, whereas without new drivers old USB shit would be nothing more than a paperweight.

 

[bandcoach]

necro thread: first post was 2009; next was today: /thread