Midi Keyboards: Live Amplification

Matt Till · #1 04-23-2005, 04:54 PM

Alright, I understand now how to hook a midi keyboard to a computer... now how do you amplify it? Is it only for the benefit of computer use? I can't find anything really helpful googling... because I don't really know what I'm looking for.

Wrong Robot · #2 04-23-2005, 05:00 PM

Line out from your computer+ amplify that signal

Matt Till · #3 04-23-2005, 05:06 PM

I was thinking that. But lets say I was a gigging keyboard player. Would I have to get a laptop?

dave_clark69 · #4 04-23-2005, 05:11 PM

Well yeah pretty much. The thing is that people mistake what MIDI means. Its something like Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The output signals are codes that need to be processed by the soundcard. You might be able to find some kind of ultra mini soundcard that is designed for this because you don't really need a whole computer for just 'playing'. If you were doing all this modulation and FX, you would be better off with a laptop. Make sure it comes with a good soundcard so there is 0 latency.

Matt Till · #5 04-23-2005, 05:22 PM

Hey, what's a decent midi to USB converter. The one on musicians friend got horrible reviews from all it's users! Is there a decent one?

spaceman · #6 04-23-2005, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Hey, what's a decent midi to USB converter. The one on musicians friend got horrible reviews from all it's users! Is there a decent one?

I use a Roland UM-2. Works fine for my limited needs.

Tash · #7 04-23-2005, 07:48 PM

Remeber that such an interface only transmits MIDI data, i.e. digital instructions that a MIDI instrument (keyboard, drum machine, sound module) then plays.

You also need one of these devices to actually make the sounds.

Matt Till · #8 04-23-2005, 08:13 PM

What devices? I understand the basics of Midi... no real sound, just data telling a machine to produce sound.

Tash · #9 04-23-2005, 09:07 PM

Basically there are two parts to MIDI. There is the sequencer and there is the instrument.

The sequencer is what stores and plays back the MIDI file. In your case it is a program on your computer, such as Cakewalk or Logic. All a MIDI file is is a list of notes and when/how to play them.

The instrument is where the sound happens. There are many kinds of MIDI instruments, the most common is a standard MIDI keyboard. If you are playing back a MIDI file from the sequencer on your laptop, you need to connect to some kind of MIDI compatible instrument in order to get sounds. Basically all the instrument does is listen to the MIDI data coming out of the sequencer and play the notes contained in the MIDI file.

Bottom line: you need BOTH parts to have MIDI do anything. If you have a sequencer on your laptop you need some kind of MIDI instrument somewhere to make the notes the sequencer tells it to.

Matt Till · #10 08-25-2005, 02:31 PM

OK, here's where I'm at.

I've got my Midi Keyboard hooked to my computer... that's about it.

I've official used it on the computer. I ran fruityloops... and all I could do was control one of the sounds in one of the sampler. I recorded with it by opening Cool Edit Pro, and recording from the wav output. But there seemed to be a slight delay. Mostly because I had it running through so many things.

What is the best means of recording myself playing some midi keyboard?

Matt Till · #11 08-26-2005, 07:03 PM

Did someone say something?

Oops, Guess not... my mistake.

Just really wondering because I'm so stoked that I've got my midi keyboard hooked to my computer, I just don't have any means to record.

keb · #12 08-26-2005, 08:23 PM

What kind of sound card do you have? It sounds like the delay you're getting is good ol' latency. Most "consumer" sound cards (Sound Blaster, etc) while fine for games and such, aren't so good for audio recording... it's a driver thing.

Matt Till · #13 08-26-2005, 09:14 PM

Bah... OK. I'll have to take care of that... but what about recording? I mean if I record from the soundcard from the "Wave" input, it picks up things like Click Tracks and other tracks while multitracking

keb · #14 08-27-2005, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Bah... OK. I'll have to take care of that... but what about recording? I mean if I record from the soundcard from the "Wave" input, it picks up things like Click Tracks and other tracks while multitracking

I can't think of any workaround for that (unless someone else can think of a way). Basically, all the sound sources (including click tracks, etc) always get mixed down to the main wave output.

When working with software synths and stuff, usually you record the MIDI playing data into the sequencer, and then when you're done, you can render it down to an audio track, either by using a "freeze" function that many sequencers have, or by muting all the other audio sources and recording the output of the MIDI track onto a new audio track.

I think in your case, where you're trying to record the output of Fruityloops into Cool Edit, I would probably try doing a variation of the latter: record what you wanna play into Fruityloops first, then mute the click track (and everything else except for the track you just recorded), and then let Fruityloops play it back and record it into Cool Edit from there.