Easy Q? -how to connect my keyboard with midi???

[Rhapsody]

Hello musicmaniacs

I need some help connecting my keyboard (Orla KX 400) to my computer.
My keyboard has got Midi in- and output so i bought a cable wich i have connected.The two 5-pins jacks in my keyboard and the other end attached to my soundcard (creative sound blaster 16 plug and play).
For some unknown reason i get no visual/audio signal in my cool edit pro screen whatsoever.
So i still have to record using the mic,but i'd like to have some soundimprovement and a direct connection.
The box for midi-recording is checked in the 'Windows Recording Mixer' window and i've read cool edit help too.
Could anyone tell me,me a beginner,how to hook up a keyboard with midi?
Have you done this already?What am i doing wrong?
I thought it wouldn't be difficult to do this.
All of your suggestions/tips are welcome!
Help me out,please.I'm getting desperate by now...
Thanks!

[ErichS]

Make sure the midi Out of your KB is connected to the midi In of the cable. this actually trips up a lot of newbies.

[boingoman]

I'm not too hip on midi, but you know that midi is not audio, right? It is just note information. What note on the keyboard, at what velocity, for how long. Nothing about what sound is patched to that note. Recording midi info from your keyboard into your computer and playing it back will not sound like your keyboard. If you play back a midi file in your computer, it uses the soundcard's synth to generate the tones, and they will be from the general midi table in the soundcard, not your keyboard.

To get the actual sounds from your keyboard, you have to run out of it's line outputs or run it into an amp and mic the speaker.

You can play the midi file you recorded through your keyboard, but you still need to record the actual audio to get it in your computer.

[manning1]

rhapsody. your problem is cool is very limited in terms of midi.
it does not record midi tracks. cools strength is in the audio side. not the midi side. also there is no music scoring or editing of notation.if you want a good midi sequencer as a good complement to cool
check out powertracks that i use. (pgmusic.com). also as your new to midi there are a lot of very knowledgeable professional midi musicians that hang out at the pg user forum who can help you a lot in getting the right midi set up going.peace.

[NYMorningstar]

A better upgradable software for midi would be Cubase which comes with midi instructions that you can just follow and get yourself going. Check out this link for some exciting stuff.
http://www.steinberg.net/

[Rhapsody]

Thank you for your replies.

I finally got what i wanted.
First-I did manage to connect my keyboard to my amp long ago (no trouble at all) but never -through-my computer to amp.My line out of keyboard for some reason never worked so i thought a midi connection was what i needed instead.I was wrong,as Boingoman said,it's note info not audio.

Now i have -headphones- output of keyboard connected to line in computer and speaker out (comp) to amp.It works.
This is exactly what i wanted,play directly into cool edit pro screen without using mic (no recording of other sounds and better sound quality)
I think i'm not ready for midi yet.

I loved using cool edit pro and now even more.
Thank you and have fun!