I suck at MIDI stuff

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antispatula

antispatula

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I'm new to using midi and keyboards. What I've been doing lately is using my keyboard to trigger VSTi's and sounfonts.

But how do I access the onboard sounds that are in my keyboard, through midi?

I have the MIDI OUT of the keyboard into the MIDI IN of the soundcard.
And I just plugged the MIDI IN of my keyboard into the MIDI OUT of my soundcard. I don't know if that helps or not.

But I don't know how to use the sounds when I'm recording. I use REAPER. But I also have Sonar, but it's less intuitive than REAPER and don't use it much.

Thanks!
 
antispatula said:
But how do I access the onboard sounds that are in my keyboard, through midi?
Click to expand...

The key to accessing the onboard sounds that are in your keyboard lies in turning the 'local control' off. This breaks the connection between the keyboard and the sounds inside, effectively giving you a master keyboard and a sound module inside a single unit.

Go to the 'system' or 'global' page on your unit, find the 'Local On/Off' and set it to off. Then, if your keyboard is multi timbral set aside as many channels as you think you will use --- I usually set this up at 4 --- then set up a multi patch with piano, bass strings and woodwind (just for the sake of this test) and play them one at a time into either Sonar or Reaper midi tracks.

The process for using VSTi's differs a little between the two programs, so once you've got the setup above going you'll be ready to read the manual on the procedure for each program.


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antispatula said:
I'm new to using midi and keyboards. What I've been doing lately is using my keyboard to trigger VSTi's and sounfonts.

But how do I access the onboard sounds that are in my keyboard, through midi?

I have the MIDI OUT of the keyboard into the MIDI IN of the soundcard.
And I just plugged the MIDI IN of my keyboard into the MIDI OUT of my soundcard. I don't know if that helps or not.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hey there.
You pretty much have the right idea.
MIDI OUT from kbd to MIDI IN of the soundcard and vice-versa.
(NOTE: with this setup you might have a retriggering event where every time you play a note on the kbd the MIDI signal passes through the computer's MIDI OUT and back into your synth, triggering the note again. The software will only capture one note though ie; the original key press)

Once recorded into your software, the MIDI events will be played back through your keyboard, so you'll need to be able to monitor the audio out from your synth via a mixer or headphones.

Now, if you actually want to record the music being played from your keyboard (so you can add software effects or burn to CD, etc) you'll need to physically record the audio output from the synth via your soundcard.

The way to do this is simply to connect audio cables from the keyboard's L&R outputs to the soundcard's L&R inputs. Arm an audio track for recording and press 'Record'. Now when the MIDI events are triggered via the software, the resultant audio is recorded as a wave file.
Once completed you can mute the MIDI sequence and play around with the audio.

Hope this has helped you!
Dags
 
Dags said:
Hey there.
You pretty much have the right idea.
MIDI OUT from kbd to MIDI IN of the soundcard and vice-versa.
(NOTE: with this setup you might have a retriggering event where every time you play a note on the kbd the MIDI signal passes through the computer's MIDI OUT and back into your synth, triggering the note again. The software will only capture one note though ie; the original key press)
Click to expand...
That's why you turn local keyboard off. Let it be triggered by the midi evets from the sequencer.
 
TimOBrien said:
Basic guide:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/how_to_get_started_with_midi.html

If you want to get into MIDI, you REALLY need to buy some midi books and keep them on your reference shelf; its a very complex subject.
Click to expand...

One portion of learning midi that's still omitted from the tweakeadz guide is how to access the sounds inside a keyboard that has sounds worth accessing.

I outlined the procedure above, and it's as simple as setting the 'local on/off' switch to off, then setting up a test multi patch to get familiar with the process.

Saying that midi is 'a very complex subject' means to me that you don't really understand it yourself. The only thing midi related on my shelf is actually on my clipboard --- a decimal to hexadecimal conversion chart so I don't need my hex calculator every time I want to enter a value in hex.

Understanding midi basics is easy and working with midi is fun.

If I was new to midi and read a post like yours I would turn my attention to something that everyone seemed to enjoy --- like staying far, far away from mossy ol' midi.




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ssscientist said:
Understanding midi basics is easy and working with midi is fun.
Click to expand...

Got to agree with you there! :)
When limited by 16 MIDI channels you can learn to do some pretty amazing things by way of patch changes to extend the instrument range in a tune.
Was using an old Korg SQD-1 for many years (after I got sick of the internal sequencer in my Korg M1) to compose instrumental tunes when I first started noodling around with music, then upgraded to an Atari 1040ste MIDI computer. That rocked my world! :D:D

All the automation curves, pots, filters & switches in virtual instruments and other funky things available in current software would probably still use MIDI control as the basis for modifying values.
Once you can understand the basics of MIDI you'll be able to understand a whole lot more about what is going on behind the scenes of your sequencing software.

Happy learning!
Dags
 
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