Casio CZ1000 and Garageband

[Mr TEL]

Hi all, I'm a newbie to all this, and getting on a bit too!
I've discovered Garageband and am wondering what I can do with it. I've got an old CZ1000 synth and have tried to hook this up to the mac without success. I'm using a midi to usb adapter cable. Trouble is when I press any of the keys I either get nothing or all sorts of random notes. If I touch the pitch bend then it stops all together and a yellow light comes on on the adapter thingy.
Are these sort of things compatible or am I wasting my time?
The same happens on the Arturia virtual mini moog software that I downloaded.
Do I need special drivers or something?
Any help here would be much appreciated.

[G]

It sounds like you're on the right track. Which midi to usb adapter cable and which model Mac? Have you ever used the CZ1000 with MIDI before?

[Mr TEL]

Hi mate
Yeah, it's a Pluscom device that I got on ebay. The computer's an i-mac G5 running OS 10.4.11.
I have indeed used the Casio's midi capability before, I was using an Amiga 500 computer with a program called Music-X. This worked ok both as a keyboard controller and a midi sequencer.
I did say I was getting old!!

[G]

I see this USB-MIDI cable on Ebay UK, but can't find any info on it elsewhere. They don't mention if a driver is needed. It shouldn't be, since there is a standard USB MIDI class available, but even companies like M-Audio have bucked that a few times here and there. All G5 iMacs had USB 2.0 going forward, so that should be ok.

My first suspicion would be the cable, with a possible software or hardware problem (or both). Luckily it was very inexpensive. On the ports side, MIDI is optically isolated, so the CZ-1000 is likely ok unless it was severely dinged at some point. Does the cable show up in System Profiler when it's plugged in? Does an interface show up in Audio MIDI Setup? Do you have access to any other MIDI devices to test with?

By the way, my first programmable synth was a Casio CZ-101, and my first computer was an Atari 800, sequencing MIDI later on an Atari MegaST. So, be careful how you sling that "old" around.

[Mr TEL]

Great! You sound like you know a thing or two about this stuff.
Sorry – I thought this site would be full of youngsters talking in languages I don't understand. It's not just me then!
The cable does indeed show up in the Apple midi setup as VIEWCON. I don't have any other midi equipment to try as a test I'm afraid. It could easily be that I've bought a piece of crap, which as you say, didn't cost much. What sort of devices would you guys use to connect with then? Do people still use the CZ1000? There appear to be quite a few references to it on here.

[michael2]

no advice, but if you figure this out, please post how you did it. i have a CZ 1000 and would love to see what you do with it. good luck, once you get it working you're going to love garageband. i hadn't recorded in years until i decided to try GB out. on Logic now, but you can really do a whole lot with GB.

[ianb1469]

I've got what sounds like the same device as you, it's labeled Pluscom USB-2MIDI on the back, and shows in a device list as VIEWCON. Unless I've done something wrong it's just not very good. It seems to only handle one note at a time on each midi channel; until you release the note, no new signals are sent.

Also the MIDI-IN and OUT connectors are the wrong way round to normal (with this device the one labeled MIDI-IN carries data from the USB to the MIDI connector, so would go into the MIDI-IN on an instrument). I would not be surprised if the wires were just soldered on at random.....

I wonder if it's a rip-off of a genuine device that works...there seem to be people using devices properly that call themselves VIEWCON, but almost none with the word pluscom on the back(?)