possible to play with midi live?

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rob_sl

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i have a casio ctk-700 keyboard with midi feature. i want know how i can play with it live by hooking it up to my laptop? how will the sound coming from my laptop (which ill be controlling with my midi) could be heard on a live stage? first off what cable do i need to connect my laptop to my keyboard and then how can i make the sounds sound live in a stage? thanks a lot!!!! help is really appreciated.
 
cheers but that didnt help at all. it only talked about connections and such not once mentioned what i want to do.. thats why im asking here. bump.
 
Okay, maybe I read your post backwards. Do you want to use the keyboard to control the laptop? Like, as in, you have a softsynth on your laptop that you want to use live?

If so, you'll need an audio interface to go from your laptop to the PA system. And probably one with a midi port. There are a few that will do the job for you. I can think of the EMU 0404 USB:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/0404USB/

or

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/US122L/
(this is the cheapest interface with audio and midi that I could find quicly)

You definitely don't want to use the built-in soundcard on your laptop. Using a quality converter coming out of your laptop will yield very good sound fro your audience.

Hope this helps more....
 
now thats it thanks for the help.. i do have some questions though....

someone told me that all i need to do that was a midi-usb cable :/

whats the interface for?

this is basically what iwant to do:

casio ctk-700 keyboard (midi) ----> midi/usb cable ----> laptop

i want to play loops and sounds of my computer by activating them with keys in my casio ctk-700. now my question is..

what cable exactly do i need to connect my keyboard to my laptop to do that?

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how do i get those sounds to come out of an amplifier?
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list everything else i need and why?
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if someone manages to answer those questions ill be the happiest man alive. the thing is that ive seen friends of mine using the m-audio midi and its plug in and done. they can control the sounds in the comp with that simple midi keyboard. sooooo if its that simple why do i need an interface for? and how do i get the sounds to come out of my laptop? help me out cause im lost. be noobish in a way cause i dont really know the names of devices and such.

another thing .. EXTRA .. is there another device that lets me do what i want thats NOT the midi? help me out and help me find the easiest solution to what i want to do.
 
You should be the happiest man already because I gave you a good solution. :rolleyes: One of those two devices is what you want. They both have midi ports and they both convert the digital data to analog signals that can go into your PA system.

You can buy a cheaper midi-only port like your friend suggested, but you wouldn't have a good way to get your sounds out to your PA. You definitely do not want to use the soundcard on your computer. So, this is why I suggested devices like the two examples I gave. They do midi as well as digital to analog conversion.

Your diagram is incomplete, it should look like this....

casio ctk-700 keyboard (midi) ----> midi/usb cable ----> laptop ---> Audio interface----> PA System

Then you'll need a software program that accepts the midi input from your keyboard and hosts whatever softsynth you are using. For that, I don't have any recommendation. There will probably be a lite version of a popular DAW that will come with either device, but I don't know how well they will work for a live application.

As for your last question. You can buy a keyboard controller that plugs directly into a usb port, but you'll still need a quality audio interface. Only now, without the midi requirement. Check out these two for around the same price.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KeyRig49/
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Transit/
 
If your laptop has a 1/8" headphone jack then that Hosa cable is one you could use to hook up to the sound system. The sound of this won't be great, as laptop headphone outputs are not great. The converters aren't so good and the audio quality will be lower than with a dedicated audio interface.

Even if you use the headphone out, you still need a way to get midi into your laptop. The Midi/usb cable your friend told you about is not just a cable, it's a midi interface built into a cable.

So really, the suggestions Chili gave you are very good. I use a Tascam US-144 with my laptop and it has worked very well. It and the US-122 are really quite inexpensive and give you both midi and a higher quality output than the headphone jack. Plus, I've found that 1/8" jacks can be a bit temperamental--the connection can be intermittent and they are easily bumped which can cause loud obnoxious sounds to be sent to the house system. I also prefer to have an easy way to mute the laptop output via a volume knob, something which is not built into most laptops.

As far as the cables to and from the audio interface, you'd just read the manual and use whatever is called for. That would probably be either 1/4" cables or RCA to 1/4" cables for the audio out. Then you'd need a midi cable and a USB cable. As I remember, the USB cable came with my US-144.
 
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