Midi Cable Or Interface Or What? Options

[Toccater]

I hope one of you big guys can give a quick answer on a stupid question : I want to hook up my e-piano to my imac g4. The piano's plugs say "tohost". Do I still need a midi interface or does a cable do the job? what kind of cable? I never found a usb-midi cable on ebay or similar. Thanks, Hope Im not being too dum

[Synthetic]

ok... the 3 female ports with 5 holes are your midi in, out & thru ports and I think the "to host" port with 8 pins is a serial port just like my Yamaha. So... you will not be able to use the "to host" port unless you get a serial to USB adapter and I don't recommend doing that as most of the adapters have limited compatibility with other products and for about the same cost a just a little more you can get a midi interface.

so I recommend looking for a USB midi interface... one with at least one in and out port on it. Good place to look is Samash.com, Musiciansfriend.com, or Sweetwater.com. You should be able to get one for less than $60 bucks or look on Ebay and you might find a used one even cheaper. Oh... its not just a cable your are looking for.... its an actual box that connects via USB and then you will need a couple of midi cables to go from box to your epiano. Also... this is just for midi data and this won't get actual audio sound into G4 so if you want to get actual sound and midi data... you will need to spend a bit more money and get an audio interface with midi input as well.