Decoding MIDI with discrete logic

[Paul Perry]

It might appear that all that has to be done is to 
turn the 8 bit serial lumps into parallel & see what is there, but 
WARNING WARNING you have to account for thigs like , what if there
is some sysex coming down, you have to know not to look at this,
there could be anything there.
What I am saying is, there is a bit of hardware parsing you will have to do,
possibly more than you expect.

But, GO FOR IT!
and, in the spirit of diy, use UARTS from 286 computers (hard to get
anywhere else now anyhow)
paul perry Frostwave P/L Melbourne Australia (not a programmer)