Computer keyboard MIDI recording

Andre48 wrote on 9/20/2009, 7:10 PM

when i press the letters on the computer keyboard (not actual piano keyboard), the sound is like a second late so it sounds all jumbled when i play it back. so unless theres some way i could fix this, i can't record with the computer keyboard. do you think i'll have the same problem when i get an actual piano keyboard? if so, how do i fix this? i use MMM14 producer edition.

Comments

ralftaro wrote on 9/22/2009, 5:39 AM

Hi there,

That's probably just due to a long recording latency times. The driver that's configured by default isn't really suitable for recording. Simply switching to ASIO drivers should do the trick. You can change the driver model when you're in the main screen of Music Maker and press "P" on your computer's keyboard to bring up the "Playback parameters" dialogue. Pick "ASIO" under "Device" and choose a suitable ASIO driver from the two drop-down lists. If your sound hardware doesn't provide ASIO drivers, you can opt for the generic "Magix Low Latency (2008)" driver or install ASIO4ALL.

Either way, the computer keyboard isn't really a very good substitute for a proper MIDI master keyboard, but with somewhat decent hardware and the information above you should be fine and well-prepared to hook up an actual MIDI keyboard.

I hope this helps!

NoTurning wrote on 9/25/2009, 8:13 PM

YES! ASIO sounds better than Direct Sound... so does .WAV

The ASIO4ALL might just be the trick. If you intend (from your first post) to connect a music keyboard via MIDI then none of these will affect it anyway. ASIO (and the others) are strictly for audio and have noting to do with MIDI, which is data and not sound.

If you attach a keyboard you might consider recording with audio as you are now - then the ASIO4ALL will be well worth the free download.

Justin

NoTurning wrote on 9/26/2009, 2:24 PM

www.asio4all.com

ralftaro wrote on 9/29/2009, 10:47 AM

Regarding the occasional sound problems: What sound hardware are you using? The only times I had driver problems between Music Maker or Music Studio, especially when trying to use generic ASIO drivers, was when I was using really crummy audio hardware.

Earlier this year I bought a new system (which is one of the PCs I'm currently using) and opted for a very affordable (a.k.a. "dirt cheap") solution. As it turns out, the mainboard in that box and the VIA audio solution on it was pretty much the nastiest stuff you can find - even a step down from the popular Realtek on-board audio chipsets, which seem to perform OK in a lot of settings. Every attempt to even initialize ASIO drivers would crash the application (in this case Music Studio). I put some old Terratec PCI sound card into the system, which I had still lying around. Even though that was just a very simply hardware for gaming and home entertainment purposes (and not a proper audio/home recording card), it was a step up and helped to get around the problem.

So, the point of my little anecdote is: If you're not using audio hardware that provides its own ASIO drivers, don't expect it to perform well in audio applications. ASIO4ALL as generic driver is still worth a shot, but beyond that, you might want to look into some neat audio interface for home recording.

ralftaro wrote on 9/30/2009, 5:09 AM

I'm afraid that would fall into the general category of "nasty on-board audio hardware". Naturally, you're free to use this and see how far you can go with it, but in the long run you might want to invest into a neat audio interface in the home-recording/hobbyist. There are many, many options...

MIDI keyboard functionality and compatibility is primarily unrelated to the audio hardware you're using (unless you're connecting through a MIDI port on the audio interface). Most likely, you'll be connecting a modern MIDI keyboard via USB, with the keyboard having its own USB MIDI driver implementation. It's a pretty solid standard and I don't foresee any general compatibility problems with the sequencer of your choice. However, if there's any way you can test before you buy, you'd always be on the safe side.

ralftaro wrote on 10/2/2009, 4:15 AM

Hi again,

Eventually this is probably headed towards the installation of an actual new sound hardware. You can download and install the generic ASIO4ALL driver and see how for you get, but improved drivers will only get you so far. You won't be able to make the hardware do things that it just wasn't really designed for. As far as I'm concerned, picking and using the right audio interface is at least as important as picking the right sequencer software for your needs. I think this is something that doesn't get enough consideration in the consumer/beginner sector since pretty much all PC mainboards already come equipped with some simple on-board audio solution these days. When I started getting into audio applications on the PC about 15 years ago, this was not the case. If you wanted to use the x86 PC (as opposed to other home computer systems at the time) for audio, or even just for gaming, you were forced to consciously think about matters like what audio hardware you're going to need for your purposes.

We also wore onions on our belts, which was the style at the time.