midi software for old 486/pentium computers
http://www.urr.ca/software/software.htmhttp://www.urr.ca/software/converter/cmanual.pdfA completely free application for use in commercial and non-commercial music projects and studios, converter is a very powerful and flexible real-time application providing an advanced midi input processor, clock sync'ed lfo to midi generators, filter bank -based audio to midi converter, gameport or joystick to midi converter, and mouse or touchpad to midi converter in an all-in-one solution. Targeted in such a way as to add value and utility to older computing equipment which might otherwise be discarded into the environment, converter provides reliable performance on par with outboard hardware devices with its default settings on older 486 or Pentium computers. Considering that many of these older computers can be found almost for free, this hardware/software combination provides a surprisingly cost-effective studio tool. With its modern graphical aesthetic, converter never looks or performs like it’s operating on anything remotely old or obsolete.
Take a synthesist's approach to midi stream generation and transformation with converter.
hardware requirements
There are some specific things converter requires in order to operate. As converter is designed to take advantage of older systems, the following hardware standards are supported and can be found in a majority of these types of computers. For a full overview of supported hardware and input devices, take a look at the manual.
486DX/33 as an absolute minimum; Pentium 100MHz or faster strongly recommended
SVGA video card with at least 512k of video memory
DOS - the version which comes with Windows 9x is more than sufficient
One or more of the following soundcards, or a 100% compatible alternative, is also required - ISA-bus cards are recommended as many PCI cards often do not properly implement audio or midi input functionality under DOS (and converter is intended to provide utility to older hardware, not the latest 24-bit audio interfaces):
Roland or UART-mode MPU-401
LAPC-1, SCC-1, MPU series, Soundscape, Terratec, ESS, Turtle Beach, etc. etc.
Soundblaster
SoundBlaster 2.x
SoundBlaster Pro and 100% compatibles
SoundBlaster 16 / 32 / Awe32 / Awe64
Avance Logic ALS-100, ALS-100+, ALS-200, etc
Gravis Ultrasound
'classic', Max, P&P/Pro
