[G4] MIDI

[John Erdman]

Paul -
I don't have the Casio keyboard but I do use a Roland. so I can't be 
absolutely sure what cables are called for. Most keyboards I've seen 
have three MIDI cable connections in the back. The MIDI IN, OUT, and 
THRU  ports on the keyboard are about 1/2" in diameter and have 5 pin 
connections. They look sorta like microphone connectors.  I've never 
looked at the really low end Casio's but I doubt they are MIDI capable.

Depending on exactly what you want to do will require one or two cables 
of sufficient length to reach your adapter and the your computer.

You need one cable (MIDI-IN) if you only want to use the Casio only as 
an input to your computer and have the computer handle all the sound 
generation and playback.

You need two cables MIDI-IN and MIDI-OUT if you want the keyboard's 
sound chip to handle some of the sound generation.  I do this because 
the Roland chip for Grand piano is far far superior to the one included 
with Apple MIDI instruments.

You need an adapter to connect the MIDI cable(s) to your computer. This 
can take several forms. I have a Serial to MIDI adapter by Opcode 
called the MIDI Translator II for one system and a USB to MIDI adapter 
by Mark of the Unicorn (see www.MOTU.com) for my Sawtooth. Both are 
small external boxes that have a single computer connection and several 
sockets for connecting MIDI cables. You'll need the simplest unless you 
plan to add a bunch of other MIDI inputs in the future. I believe that 
one can also purchase a PCI MIDI connection but I never investigated 
those.

Then of course you need some kind of software to handle the data to be 
generated. I just read a review of Apple's  Garage Band that sounds 
like it might do what you need. I happen to Finale because I mostly use 
my system for composing and creating written music. Tho it does handle 
MIDI input, sequencing, and playback, there are MUCH better apps out 
there to do that.  I'm just not familiar with them.

Good luck,
John


On Tuesday, February 3, 2004, at 12:13 AM, Paul Pippen wrote:

> I have a 800mhz AGP and got a new casio keyboard to do some simple MIDI
> recording.  I don't know what cables I need.  I hoped that there was 
> some
> sort of adapter, but no one in my small town knows anything about it.  
> Can
> anyone help?  I plan to use Soundtrack (w/Final Cut Pro 4)
>
> Paul Pippen