Is 80s MIDI gear still useable now?

September 14, 2007 2:53 PM

i happened upon an old Korg Poly 800 synth (vintage 80s!). i understand it is one of the earlier MIDI synths--but i don't really grog MIDI. what additional cables/equipment will i need to use it to control the many possible sounds i see in garageband on my macbook?
posted by garfy3 to technology (13 comments total)

You'll probably just need a MIDI cable and a midi to usb converter. But I had an old DX21 that I plugged into my computer that way, and it never did work right, so apparently my voodoo wasn't good enough or vintage synths aren't very compatible with new gear.
posted by The World Famous at 3:12 PM on September 14, 2007

You'll need a USB MIDI interface, and an appropriate driver for it, which should be supplied on a CD or available for download from the manufacturer's Web site. Looks like you're looking at $40-$50.
posted by kindall at 3:13 PM on September 14, 2007

This one is a great deal at under $30 and gets good reviews.
posted by kindall at 3:16 PM on September 14, 2007

Any midi keyboard should work as a midi controller, you need a midi interface for the Korg to talk to your mac. For the ultimate in cheap and simple there's UM-1EX which will allow you to hook up 1 midi device (or multiple devices in series). I'm sure m-audio has something similar.
As much as i like real hardware, I'd say forget the Korg, buy a USB midi controller keyboard and get Reason, instead. You'll have more keyboards/sound modules to play with and no cranky old hardware to wonder about. Purists will call me a philistine but I've been down the hardware route and it get's old real quick.
posted by doctor_negative at 3:20 PM on September 14, 2007

thanks kindall! i'll be picking up one of those cable-ey things.

i suppose this also means i can use the garageband sequencer to "play" voices from the ancient Poly 800? or is that more cables?
posted by garfy3 at 3:21 PM on September 14, 2007

"Grok."

And, yeah, you can control the Korg from your computer, too. Kindall's cabley thing does both the in and the out, so you're good to go.
posted by Reggie Digest at 3:59 PM on September 14, 2007

Although, of course, you'll want to connect the audio outs to your computer. Hello, audio interface.
posted by Reggie Digest at 4:02 PM on September 14, 2007

(Most USB audio interfaces cost slightly more than your Poly800, by the way. I've never quite understood why that is.)
posted by Reggie Digest at 4:07 PM on September 14, 2007

Poly 800's are great, kind of a tiny DX7 of sorts. People still use them all the time.
posted by rhizome at 4:14 PM on September 14, 2007

Wait ... do you just want to use it as a MIDI keyboard, to control sounds that are in GarageBand? Or do you want to actually use its built-in synthesizer, for that vintage 80s sound?

Because if all you wanted was a keyboard, there are a lot simpler options; you didn't need a synth at all for that. And there you just need a MIDI interface for the computer and a MIDI cable, and you can use the keyboard as a controller for the computer. You press a key on the Korg, it produces MIDI as output, sends it to the computer by way of an interface, and the computer translates that into audio.

But the Korg is also a synthesizer. That is, it takes MIDI commands as input, and outputs analog audio. For that, you need to make sure that you have a MIDI interface for the computer that has both an input and an output, and you'll need two cables, and configure the computer to output to MIDI rather than using a built-in software synthesizer.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:50 PM on September 14, 2007

I had a Poly-800 II, and they're beyond awesome (especially since they can be converted to be played with a guitar strap). If you want to use it as a midi controller, you might be better off just buying a cheap USB midi keyboard.
posted by christinetheslp at 9:37 PM on September 14, 2007

MIDI is not obsolete by any means and people here are pretty much spot on except for one thing: Garageband doesn't output MIDI to external interfaces at all.

Your choices: "upgrade" to a proper sequencer, e.g., Cubase, Digital Performer, Logic, Ableton Live etc. (costly, but depending how serious you are, might be worthwhile). Or there's a hack for GB that can make it output MIDI:

midiO

And Poly800 is a brilliant synth, enjoy!
posted by phax at 3:29 AM on September 15, 2007

I love my Poly 800. My daughters now play and program and sequence it. Maybe my grandkids will too, some day. Congratulations on your find :)
posted by sidereal at 4:09 AM on September 15, 2007