A: You are going to get a second (standard) SCSI card to hook the CD recorder to.

Q: When syncing together different software programs within Windows, what device is needed to make them all sync to the same clock?

A: A virtual MIDI driver — either the Hubis Loop Driver found on the SEK’d Web site or the Sonic Foundry Virtual Driver found on their Sound Forge CD-ROM or at their Web site.

Q: I have a sampler that is hooked to a Zip drive. Whenever I try to load from the Zip, I get SCSI noise: Clicks and pops. What is causing this?

A: This may be caused by a grounding problem. A good way to test this is to lift the ground on the sampler to see if the problem goes away. However, this is not a permanent solution. To properly correct this problem, you must find the source of the ground loop in your system.

Q: I know there were problems with the new Macintosh Blue G3 computers running music software when they were introduced several months ago. Are there still problems?

A: The road to making music on the Yosemite G3 was a rocky one and there are still a few bumps. The big problems concerned the PACE copy protection (which requires a floppy drive) and the lack of serial ports. Most of the software titles that use PACE protection have been updated to work with the new G3 and there are now USB MIDI interfaces hitting the market.

Q: I have discovered that the Cubase and Waves dongles both interrupt the flow of MIDI data on the parallel port. I understand that the workaround is to add a second parallel port to the computer, or to purchase a MIDI interface that works off the USB or serial port. What’s my best option here?

A: Here are several:

1. If your motherboard has an available ISA slot, and you already have a parallel port MIDI interface, you could purchase an inexpensive plug and play parallel port for about $15. We recommend you put the dongles on this port and use the built-in parallel port for the MIDI interface. In experiments, we have stacked six dongles on a port like this with no complications, but it’s sometimes problematic to get your MIDI interface to work correctly on these types of ports.
2. If you already have a parallel port MIDI interface, and you have one of the newer style motherboards that no longer has ISA slots, you could purchase a PCI card that provides an additional parallel and a serial port for about $60.
3. And finally, if your computer doesn’t have an ISA slot and you don’t already have a MIDI interface, you could purchase one that uses the USB port or the serial port.