On Apr 4, 2015, at 5:20 PM, Christopher-Mark Gilland <[email protected]>
wrote:
You're talking two totally different things here.
Let's get one thing totally straight. Midi isn't audio. All that midi
basically is are different numerical values for certain triggered events, with
1's and 0's attached to it. Basically 0 means the event is off, while 1 means
it is on. Every single thing you do with the keyboard is associated with a
midi event, as they are called. I understand this isn't what you're asking,
but to answer your question, I have to define this, so you'll understand in a
second where I am going with this. So what happens with midi is, these events
are sent to your midi hardware or software controller either on the input, or
on the output side. Trust me with this, I am an audio engineer, so I know what
I'm talking about, believe me. I've done this stuff for years. Not saying
I'm God, and know everything, cause I definitely don't, but this much, I do!
know.
OK, so with all of that said, let's address your question at hand... The short
answer is, Garageband will definitely do midi. If you don't plan to record,
but just want to play, then Audacity or even Main Stage might be your best bet.
The thing however is, just know that if you want to get the sounds from your
keyboard, it may take a little more work. First of all, does your keyboard
have built in speakers? If not, you'll need to somehow get the keyboard going
to a line source like the line in of your mac, or to a mixer etc. I don't know
your setup, so it's kind of hard for me to really determine e everything right
up front without more info.
You're going to most likely need a midi to USB converter, because obviously,
the mac doesn't have built in round midi in and out and through ports. There is
a nice device called the midi Uno that would work with this. Basically, it's a
Y cable. One end has 3 of the male round plugs. One for in, one for out, and
one for through. So, you'd connect that end to your keyboard, and leave the
through cable dangling if you don't have a through port on the keyboard... it
won't hurt anything. The other end is a standard USB plug. That would go into
the USB port on your mac. I think they're somewhere like around $50 or so.
Amazong should have them. I've had mine for about 5 years now, so I can't tell
ya if they still exist, but, I'd definitely look.
If your keyboard actually connects via USB, not the round midi plugs, then just
use a standard plug and play USB cable, and you'll be good to go.
If you want to then play midi with the built in instruments, then you'll open
up your DAW, (Digital Audio workstation,) of choice, be it Garageband,
Audacity, whatever, and you'll want to set your midi output to your keyboard
midi controller. So, if you're using an Uno, or some sort of midi to USB
converter, it should, provided you have the drivers properly installed, show up
in your output list. You'd just pick it, and boom, you're done. Now you'll
play the midi file just like you normally would and it then should come out
your keyboard speakers, or if no speakers, it'll get routed to your keyboard's
line out/headphone out which you then have fed back into a line in source of
some type.
If you wanna record using the sounds in the keyboard, this gets a little more
complecated. Basically, keeping it general, and elementary, you'd need, even
if there are! built in speakers, to connect a stereo patch cable to the line
out, preferred, or if you don't have one, the headphone jack of the keyboard,
and the other end into a channel on your interface/mixer, or if you don't have
one, then directly to your line in on the mac. Fire up your DAW of choice.
Open the midi file, or record it like normal, then in your project, create a
stereo audio track for your final master mix, arm it for recording if needed,
then making sure none of your midi tracks are armed, so you don't accidentally
record over them, hit record in the software of your choice, and then basically
allow the midi to play through your keyboard, and get routed out the keyboard
to the line in of your mixer/interface/line in jack on the mac, therefore
capturing that audio and recording it to the stereo audio track you just
created. Then, once done, delete all the midi tracks from the project, leaving
only the one audio track, and then mix/bounce/render, however the DAW calls it,
it down to either a wave file, or an mp3. Preferably a wave file, so that it
won't be compressed or with any artifacts. You can later go back and encode
that wave to an mp3 file, if it be needed.
I do offer tech support on this type thing, so if you need help, give me a call
on Monday, and I can definitely help you with this. My rates are $15 an hour,
or $25 flat rate for unlimited tech support during business hours for one whole
month. I take PayPal, and I also can over the phone process Visa and
Mastercards if it be a last resort. I prefer PayPal though as the other way
can be a bit dicy for some people. Just know though, it is an option. PayPal
Here is my processor if you go that avenue, so it's totally 100% secure.
If you want to do this and take advantage of my support options, my support
phone number is:
704-594-2225. Hours are Mon-Fri. 8AM to 5PM, closed on weekends and holidays.
These times are quoted according to eastern standard time.
I hope that I've been of help.
Chris.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Devin Prater" <[email protected]>
To: "OS X & iOS Accessibility" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2015 4:35 PM
Subject: [Mac-access]: midi keyboard usage within the mac
Hi all. I mac a lovely midi keyboard… Well it will be when I find the midi
-to-usb cable… Its a Yamaha keyboard with its own built-in instruments. I
really would rather use its instruments instead of the garageband ones, and
would rather have a program that simply makes midi files, like QWS on Windows.
Are there any apps that can do that for the Mac?
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