Would this work with my FD-4?

[fat jonny]

I am new to recording and I want to hook up my FD-4 to my computer. G3 powerbook and it doesn't have the optical input (or at least I don't see one) that corresponds to the optical output on the FD-4, so here is my idea. I would buy a midi interface with the USB connector, plug the midi out on the FD-4 into that, and then run that into the USB port on the computer.Would that work or not? Would I have to then buy some audio software? what kind would you recommend for a mac (I can't spend very much). BTW, my goal is to master onto the computer and burn a cd from there. Thanks a lot!!!

[rtybassist]

The MIDI output on the FD4 is just for that, MIDI data. So the only thing that would get sent out of the MIDI output is any MIDI data... no audio will get sent through the MIDI output. Sorry, the idea wouldn't work.

[bbbmusic]

Mr. FAT,
I dump my FD4 to my computer. I had to get the optical converter from Fostex that converts to digital, then, I got a converter at MARS to go from digital to USB. Or, if you have a digital sound card you can eliminate one converter. But I found the digital sound cards that would do the trick, were fairly expensive. Then you have to go to the setup menu on the FD4 and scroll to the outputs and tell it to send the digital signal out the optical port. You can only send 2 channels at a time. I haven't had a problem and it works real well.
The optical to digital I got from Fostex, it was about $89. The digital to USB is made by OPCODE and you can get them from most music stores. It was $129. Not all that cheap but, I wanted to use my laptop for my "studio" and the only route to go was USB. It works super.
I have an FD4 and can only dump 2 channels at a time so, I ping everything to 2 channels. I can also only dump 2 onto the FD4. I am not sure about adding a channel after the fact. I have heard that some do it by adding all the separate channels and then sync them using the time signatures.
Later
Bruce