Posted by Décio Ribeiro on August 07, 1998 at 22:38:54:
I have a QS8 keyboard and some time ago I sent a question for Alesis about saving musics with sequencer. From then on, I have tried to do this, without success: I can play sounds from my computer but never made my own musics, saving them on my computer!
I saw that the problem was the serial ports. I had three ports (COM1,2,3). I had a Modem, a Mouse and my alesis serial cable, but my mouse and my serial cable had to share the same IRQ - it is impossible, right?
Now, I change my mainboard for a Pentium II 266, 64Mb + Win98, and now, my mouse is a PS/2 type. So, I still have 3 ports (COM1,2,3): my alesis cable is on COM1; my modem is on COM2, and my third port is not used (just set by my motherboard for future use). No IRQ is shared (in this case)!
Now, my problem is as follow: when I use 115.2K of speed, the Alesis driver hangs my computer. For example, when I am using Cakewalk, and push the red button, planing to record something and I press the first note on my QS8... my computer hangs! When I reduce the speed (for 28.8k), my system appear to works fine! But I'm not shure if it will works ever. Maybe the problem is not the speed...
I think in some reasons for this problem is occuring:
Maybe software.. From Alesis Driver: [1] Speed Limit (28.8k ... 115k) and [2] Input resistence value.
Maybe Configuration of COM1 and COM2 from Control Panel (speed, parity, etc...).
Maybe Resident softwares installed: Antivirus, softwares for internet, and others running together when I start my computer.
Maybe Hardware: Configuration of serial ports or other things from BIOS (AMIBIOS)
I had notice that each configuration (from BIOS) of my serial ports is different. My COM1 have a simple configuration: it just configure the address (3F8, 2E8, etc...); but, my COM3 (the second port) have some possibilities: it can configure the address, the mode (Normal, IrDA, ASKR, MIR 0.5Mbps, MIR 1.1Mpbs, FIR) and duplex mode (Full or Half). Could it affect or change the communication between QS8 and the computer?
Summarizing: I just want to save my musics using my serial cable and my QS8 but my computer always hangs when I start to record anything played in QS8! Which parameters I have to change?
(Thanks in advance; really sorry for my English)