3 ms·

Did the Msx have midi ports as standard, or am I remembering incorrectly.

• lokedhs 8y ago
  You might be thinking of the Atari ST, which became popular with musicians for that reason.
  • Annatar 8y ago
    Ah, an ATARI ST! As a kid I had always drooled over a 520 ST and 1040 STFM, but they were too expensive and as a Commodore kid I ended up on the Amiga, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the Amiga had slightly more powerful hardware and a superior operating system. However the soft spot for the ST always remained and decades later when I can finally afford it, I have a Falcon030 as well. Fascinating machines, the ATARI ST's!
• Zenst 8y ago
  MIDI was added later to the MSX standard, and came after the CX5M, which added them along with the FM module (which was iirc 5 FM operators - the DX7 synth was 7 FM operators) which was the cheaper flavour of FM.
  • raphlinus 8y ago
    The DX7 was 6 operators, and the module in the CX5M (I had one) was 4 operators, like the DX21. It used the YM2151 sound chip, which was also present in a number of video games. This was an awesome computer, very fun to play with.
    • Zenst 8y ago
      Aha, thank you for jogging me grey matter, I had one as well (got one with a couple of friends and formed a band - one gig wonder). Had a TR707 as well, fun times and great intro into music. Did enjoy the CX5M immensely, though went out of my way to avoid any preset sound. Once you've owned a synth, you just recognise all the presets in all the songs, but was easier back then unlike todays sample world. I did prefer the bass sounds on the Casio Phase Distortion synths though over the FM options as sounded richer (at least for me).
• squarefoot 8y ago
  No sure about other brands/models but the Yamaha cx5 was intended as a music workstation from the beginning and did have midi in & out. Those were the days just after Yamaha almost monopolized the music industry with the sound of the DX7 and following synthesizers.