How to use my laptop for small home & midi recording?

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songsmyth
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:32 pm

How to use my laptop for small home & midi recording?

Post by songsmyth »

Hello,
I am looking for a low cost method of using my laptop to do some home recording as well as creating midi files.

I have a nice Yamaha midi keyboard/synth to use and would also like to use some of the various soft synths out there. Eventually I will be using my assortment of guitars as well (... hopefully- I am a quadraplegic - I've just suffered a second spinal cord injury and at present can't manage a guitar - but that should change over time...at least i got back to using a slide after the first injury so I believe I'll be able to get back to something anyway!)

I have a good HP laptop but it only has a so-so sound card - with no midi support. It has an abundance of usb 2.0 slots and a 1394 firewire port.

I intially was going to use the Soundblaster Audigy 2 nx (usb) external sound card and MTS untill I discovered that the nx didn't have any midi support.

I see that I can get a usb midi connection, but am wondering how well a seperate usb midi port, seperate usb sound card and MTS would play together? Or if there is another low-cost solution that anyone knows about or uses?

I greatly appreciate any and all help!

Thanks
Saz
Posts: 531
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:44 am

Post by Saz »

Hi songsmyth!

MTS support might be able to best answer your question about using separate audio and midi interfaces - you can e-mail them here... support@multitrackstudio.com

I don't have experience with external sound cards, but a few more details might help narrow your search. Do you want 16 or 24bit capability? Do you now or will you need more than 2 input channels?

You might also try posting your questions here... http://audiominds.com/forums It's a friendly, helpful place for digital audio questions.

Hope this helps you some. :)

John
songsmyth
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:32 pm

Post by songsmyth »

Hi John,
Thanks for the answer. I would definetly want the capability of 24 bit and would also probably go for a 2x2 midi connection (costs being as close as they are).

I'm just worried that using the two external devices (sound card and midi connection) might not work well together ie: will the external sound card recognize the external midi ports. If that did work, then would MTS recognise and use both...

I think you are right about asking support and i appreciate the other link as well.

When I find out if this type of setup will work or not I'll come back and post the answers in case anyone else finds themselves in this situation.

Thanks again,

David
axman
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2004 10:04 pm

Post by axman »

Songsmyth: I use an HP laptop and a separate external usb interface providing me mic and guitar inputs, headphones, 1/4 inch in/out , etc...
bypassing the onboard sound card. I run the RL channel out to a pair of powered AR monitor speakers with 8in woofer [powered partners that I bought on ebay for $65) which have their own amp. I use a kerzweil 88 keyboard and run the channels into this external interface. Through the front I run a mic for sax work.

The Aardvark direct mix USB3 thatI use, and most external usb interfaces connect right up to the laptop. The 1/8 headphone and mic pins on the laptop just don't provide enough for everthing

You would probably want a midisport [which I used 2 years ago with a laptop] or some other manufacturer, since you are into midi.

Here's what the interface looks like.....just boot it up with your laptop, open MTS and away you go.

http://www.3-0-0.com/MTS/usb3.gif
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