FYI on MIDI to/from USB:

I have a USB to/from MIDI adapeter cable (with a mini
box in the middle) from Turtle Beach that I picked up
at a computer shop for around $35. It came with
Voyetra music software, which was ok for the package
price. It has some good tools for file transfer, a
simple to use sequencer, note score from MIDI printer,
etc. I got it for my notebook, with no midi
connections. If you need midi connections, that's one
way. It's probably not a serious professional midi
interface, but it has done everything I've needed,
like push the sequencer stuff out to midi devices and
send/receive sysex files and upgrades. It works for
Mac and PC it says too. I use it on an HP notebook and
my home built rack-mount audio workstation.

But there are a lot of MIDI adapters out there,
including Creative and other cheaper PC oriented ones
as opposed to the more expensive musician oriented
ones from the big players in the music biz. It depends
on what you need. For a simple setup or just moving
sysex around, the cheap PC adapter is probably enough.
For real-time perforance, you probably want the better stuff.



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