Korg T-2, and elementary midi question

[p645250]

Back in the early 90's I bought a Korg T-2, 61-note synth. It's a great keyboard and now that I'm retired, I want to record some tunes in MP3 format. Obviously it's pretty outdated, but I hope I can still squeeze something out of it. Here's what's on the back:
Stereo output jacks - 1L, 2R, 3, 4, headphone
Midi - IN, OUT-A (2 of them), OUT-B (2 of them), THRU

Ok, where do I start? How can I connect the keyboard to my laptop to create an MP3? I know I need some hardware interface, obviously. I have a Sony Vaio running XP with 3 USB ports. And can you recommend required software? Will Audacity work?

Many, many thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Oancient1]

Never done it myself, preferring to use a stand alone multi-track recorder that allows me record ot mix directly to MP3. But it seems to me that you should be able to connect the stereo output of your Korg to the LINE input of a PC and use Audacity to record the Korg output. (Don't know about your laptop, but on mine if I plug anything into the MIC input of the laptop Windows asks me if it is a mic or a line level signal.) My guess is that your 1/L and 2/R outputs can be connected to the PC with a Y-cable with the proper connectors, or you could connect to the headphone output with a single cable and be careful not to have the headphone level set too high. Audacity records in propietary format but allows export to other formats. To export to MP3 from Audacity you must also download and install the LAME encoder, as described on the Audacity site.

This is of course the cheapest approach. Others in this group who use PCs to record can suggest more capable and elaborate methods that use external interfaces and better software.

 

[TetraFish]

You really need an interface. Using your soundcard in your laptop youll have huge latency problems.

Something like this

PreSonus

or this

M-AUDIO - Fast Track Pro - 4 x 4 Mobile USB Audio/MIDI Interface with Preamps

will allow you to connect the audio outs and MIDI in/outs to your PC and allow you to not only record audio but MIDI as well. You can then use your PC as a MIDI sequencer.

Everyone in here will tell you to use reaper, I think it's only $40 or $50 bucks and you only pay when you decide it's for you. Also most interfaces come with some sort of stripped down DAW program that will probably do what you need right now.