JonahPavesco
New member
I have NO experience with using keyboard controllers, soft synths, MIDI modulators, none of that. I've always mic'd synths since I started on my Roland VS 1680. A couple months ago I upgraded from the VS 1680 to a Tascam NEO 2488 MTR. I use both that AND Sonar 8.0 Producer Edition sequencer on Win 7 (as well as some other programs like Pure Data, an open source "Drum Machine" program called Hydrogen 0.9.6. and a few others, but Sonar's the only DAW I use, though the controller came with a DAW I've never heard of called EnergyXT2.5. I'm sure it's similar to other LE DAW's like Sonar, Cubase, Logic, etc...but it has a bunch of fx plug-ins, virtual instruments and an allegedly "low latency" audio driver. Might be worth using just for the extra effects and the audio driver...though I don't fully understand the role of the driver, so I don't know whether that'd be good, bad or neither).
I just got a Behringer UMX490 keyboard MIDI controller. In the manual and basically everywhere else I look, I see diagrams displaying the MIDI OUT going to the controller to an interface of some sort, which connects to the PC via USB or Firewire, but then a MIDI IN returning either to the controller or a sound modulator. I get that the MIDI signal needs to be fed to the DAW (in the case of soft synths), which recognizes the signal and returns to the controller OR a modulator (please correct me on this because I know I'm at least partially off about this). But the controller only has a MIDI OUT and I don't have a modulator.
I didn't have enough money for a good interface and I didn't want to waste 100-200 bucks on one I'd just replace in a year or two. So I got this MIDI/USB converter. It has a MIDI OUT and IN cable connected to a tiny interface, and on the other end runs a USB cable. Can I just connect the MIDI OUT cable to my controller and leave the MIDI IN cable from the converter unplugged? Or do you NEED that signal to loop with the IN cable to control soft synth and assign controls, etc?
I'm so lost on this I don't even know where to start. BTW, the MIDI keyboard came with its own "interface" but it doesn't have any MIDI IN's or OUT's just left and right i/o's for RCA cables and a USB cable. So I don't even get how that works since the controller itself doesn't have any RCA i/o's, just a 9v power input, USB, MIDI OUT and Foot Switch send.
And the Tascam mixer doesn't accept MIDI signals directly (you can't hook up a synth and record the signal), but it DOES have both a MIDI IN and OUT. Is there a way I can run it from my controller, through my mixer's IN, and connect the IN cable from the converter to the mixer's MIDI OUT and using the MIDI/USB converter I mentioned, connect the USB cable to my PC? Will this be a viable signal path or will I blow something? Or will it just not work? I'd like to connect my Tascam to my PC anyways (it has a seperate USB output for importing/exporting tracks). Given what I have currently (1. Tascam NEO w/1 MIDI out and 1 MIDI in; 2. MIDI keyboard with only 1 MIDI out, no MIDI in; a MIDI/USB converter with MIDI in AND out cables and a USB cable; 4. Sonar 8.0 PE on Win 7) is it possible to use the soft synths with my keyboard on Sonar AND connect my Tascam to my PC so I can go back and forth between the two and sync the tempos so my metronomes run together on both the mixer and sequencer?
If all of this sounds idiotic or wasteful or just not doable, by all means let me know, but other than letting me know how screwed up I've got things, please give me some guidance, a solution or two. I've been doing a lot of research over the past five years, but I still don't understand a fraction of recording, mixing, mastering, etc. and this is a first for me using a MIDI device as well as trying to sync up a digital mixer to a sequencer, which I know a lot of people think is a waste of time/useless, but I see uses for it so any help would be greatly appreciated.
I just got a Behringer UMX490 keyboard MIDI controller. In the manual and basically everywhere else I look, I see diagrams displaying the MIDI OUT going to the controller to an interface of some sort, which connects to the PC via USB or Firewire, but then a MIDI IN returning either to the controller or a sound modulator. I get that the MIDI signal needs to be fed to the DAW (in the case of soft synths), which recognizes the signal and returns to the controller OR a modulator (please correct me on this because I know I'm at least partially off about this). But the controller only has a MIDI OUT and I don't have a modulator.
I didn't have enough money for a good interface and I didn't want to waste 100-200 bucks on one I'd just replace in a year or two. So I got this MIDI/USB converter. It has a MIDI OUT and IN cable connected to a tiny interface, and on the other end runs a USB cable. Can I just connect the MIDI OUT cable to my controller and leave the MIDI IN cable from the converter unplugged? Or do you NEED that signal to loop with the IN cable to control soft synth and assign controls, etc?
I'm so lost on this I don't even know where to start. BTW, the MIDI keyboard came with its own "interface" but it doesn't have any MIDI IN's or OUT's just left and right i/o's for RCA cables and a USB cable. So I don't even get how that works since the controller itself doesn't have any RCA i/o's, just a 9v power input, USB, MIDI OUT and Foot Switch send.
And the Tascam mixer doesn't accept MIDI signals directly (you can't hook up a synth and record the signal), but it DOES have both a MIDI IN and OUT. Is there a way I can run it from my controller, through my mixer's IN, and connect the IN cable from the converter to the mixer's MIDI OUT and using the MIDI/USB converter I mentioned, connect the USB cable to my PC? Will this be a viable signal path or will I blow something? Or will it just not work? I'd like to connect my Tascam to my PC anyways (it has a seperate USB output for importing/exporting tracks). Given what I have currently (1. Tascam NEO w/1 MIDI out and 1 MIDI in; 2. MIDI keyboard with only 1 MIDI out, no MIDI in; a MIDI/USB converter with MIDI in AND out cables and a USB cable; 4. Sonar 8.0 PE on Win 7) is it possible to use the soft synths with my keyboard on Sonar AND connect my Tascam to my PC so I can go back and forth between the two and sync the tempos so my metronomes run together on both the mixer and sequencer?
If all of this sounds idiotic or wasteful or just not doable, by all means let me know, but other than letting me know how screwed up I've got things, please give me some guidance, a solution or two. I've been doing a lot of research over the past five years, but I still don't understand a fraction of recording, mixing, mastering, etc. and this is a first for me using a MIDI device as well as trying to sync up a digital mixer to a sequencer, which I know a lot of people think is a waste of time/useless, but I see uses for it so any help would be greatly appreciated.
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