F-90: MIDI or analog?

[expatCanuck]

Roland F-90: MIDI or analog?

Greetings -

To date, I've only recorded vox & mic'd acoustic guitar into either Audacity or Music Creator.
Would like to add some piano to a mix.

We have a Roland F-90 digital piano (the manual for which has long since been misplaced)
which, in addition to MIDI I/O, has two 1/4" jack outputs -- one labelled Right, the other
labelled Left/Mono. Analog, I'd guess?

Don't currently have any MIDI inputs; I do have a Delta 44.

Three questions:

1. Can I safely run the piano into the Delta 44?
2. TS cable, TRS, or does it matter?
3. Will I be losing significant quality or key functionality by not using the MIDI hookup?
   (in which case, can anyone recommend a cost-effective MIDI interface?)

Enlightenment welcome.

Thanks kindly.

- Richard
... tho' I'll admit that music's been a god to whom I pray ...

 

[Toddskins]

Answers

1) Yes
2) TS - unbalanced cables (The F-90 does not accomodate TRS or XLR balanced cables)
3) Depends - MIDI recording, which the F-90 has, along with its recording mode (limited sequencer), allows you to record your piano playing and then play it back at the push of a button. The great thing about this is that you can clean up all your mistakes before recording it with your Delta 44.

The reason I say "depends" is that the F-90 does not have the tools in which to clean up the MIDI recording. For that, you need a DAW with MIDI program (i.e. Sonar, Cubase, Garageband, ProTools, Ableton Live, etc.) These programs allow you to edit your MIDI recording. In fact, I don't even think you can export the MIDI recording from the F-90 (i.e. USB, Firewire, or SCSI), except by way of MIDI cables into a computer DAW. Therefore, you would have to use a MIDI DAW program to record and edit the file.

Here's a brochure of your keyboard with specs.

http://www.rolandus.com/uploads/CMS/Downloads/1417/f90-f100_brochure.pdf

And so then, since the Delta 44 does not have MIDI, you will have to play the piano recording "perfectly" into a track of your DAW. That means, you will be recording audio (sound).