Audio Sampling USB MIDI interface. This allows you to hook up a five-pin MIDI cable to a computer. There are also several audio inter- faces that have MIDI I/O built in and a number of MIDI-only interfaces that have ten or more MIDI in/outs. There are other controllers that connect wirelessly to computers, elimi- nating the need for any cables. When using standard MIDI cables, it is possible to connect several pieces of MIDI equipment together in a chain. Most samplers and synthesizers that use MIDI will have three MIDI ports: in, out, and thru. Any MIDI signal that enters the input is automatically sent straight to the thru port. This can be sent to another piece of equipment so that a single control- ler can communicate with several pieces of gear at once. There is a slight delay and degradation of the MIDI signal associated with connecting MIDI equipment in such a series, but this is only an issue when hooking more than a few pieces of gear together. It is recommended that three or fewer devices be hooked up in this manner. 2.14 General equipment tips and tricks As you may have noticed while reading this chapter, we have not provided a long list of equipment specifications and super-detailed explanations on how things work. The primary goal has been to help you apply the vast amount of informa- tion already available in the context of sampling. So, instead of filling up a lot of pages with information you probably already have, this section has been quite limited in scope. On this book's website there is more information about specific equipment. This final section is the most general section of the entire chapter, but it contains several pieces of advice that should help you during the sampling process. 2.14.1 Forums When it comes to troubleshooting, it can be quite difficult to find solutions. Anyone who has had the pleasure of dealing with online or phone-based technical support can usually tell at least one horror story about spending hours on the phone Web forums 58