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I have a Yamaha PSR-550 keyboard. It was released in 2001 (it's as old as me!), and is equipped with MIDI ports:
How can I use the serial MIDI port (marked to host
) with my modern PCs? (They don't have serial ports, and the keyboard appears to be using a non-standard pinout)
A copy of the manual with specifications (hosted on my webserver) can be found here: https://rahul.party/files/psr550-6044.pdf
Also see this short article to learn more about the port.
MIDI Connection | How to Connect a MIDI Keyboard to a Computer – DavidPostill – 2018-12-30T12:41:04.833
Did you google your question title? If not, why not? :) – DavidPostill – 2018-12-30T12:41:34.023
@david I did, couldn't find anything about serial midi – rahuldottech – 2018-12-30T12:47:34.480
So what's stopping you using the midi out port? – DavidPostill – 2018-12-30T12:50:21.593
@david the fact that there are no cheap USB→MIDI cables available in India. Also, I'd like to learn how one might go about using the serial port regardless, since it obviously exists for a reason. – rahuldottech – 2018-12-30T12:53:29.213
You can buy a serial to USB adapter. Note "Some old synth models (mainly by Yamaha) have a To Host connector that allows to connect the synth to serial port (COM, RS-232) of computer. As with USB connection, for the synth to function as a MIDI keyboard in this case, it requires a driver which usually comes with the synth.
This connection method is currently obsolete since the physical-level connection itself is obsolete — due to extremely low data-transfer rate, most of modern computers are not equipped with the serial interface (somewhen it has been used to connect a mouse)." – DavidPostill – 2018-12-30T12:53:50.503