Logic sound card/MIDI question

[BartM]

Hey guys

 

I am currently running Logic Pro 9 on an imac with an apogee duet 2 sound card. I am going to be buying a digital piano soon to go in the corner of my studio (kawaii cn24)

 

When i went to the store earlier to test them out the guy was trying to up sell me telling me that this more expensive model had USB rather than just MIDI

 

Anyway I am not really interested in the more expensive one but what I would like to ask is, I understands apogee duet doesn't come with MIDI in, and the digital piano I am looking to buy only has MIDI out

 

But what I want to be able to do is play a melody on my digital piano and be able to record the midi notes in to logic.. I read somewhere you cannot run 2 interfaces at the same time with logic

 

I seen a product advertised by M-Audio called the midiman midisport I think.. It seemed to convert MIDI to USB if I am right?

 

Anyway does anybody know if this would work along side my apogee duet 2 do what I need it to do? (Enable me to record MIDI notes in from the MIDI out cable on the digital piano)

 

One final thing if this is possible to do I'm guessing you set it up via the environment or 'external intstrument' section? (Vaguely remember from my moog slim phatty)

 

Thanks in advance! Think I said MIDI one too many times as well

 

Cheers!

[Cadu Byington]

Hi,

 

The best solution and maybe the cheaper is to buy a midi-usb converter

 

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Uno.html

 

Your piano will act as a controller so you wont have any issues concerning your Apogee. You will only need two USB ports in your computer for this. You dont have to set anything up, once you play your piano, Logic should receive the Midi data.

 

Greetings!

[David Nahmani]

But what I want to be able to do is play a melody on my digital piano and be able to record the midi notes in to logic.. I read somewhere you cannot run 2 interfaces at the same time with logic

You cannot run 2 AUDIO interfaces at the same time in Logic (but even then you can "aggregate" multiple audio interfaces in OS X to make a group of audio interfaces look like a single audio interface in Logic).

You can run as many MIDI interfaces at the same time as you want in Logic.

 

I seen a product advertised by M-Audio called the midiman midisport I think.. It seemed to convert MIDI to USB if I am right?

Yes, you are right. That's called a MIDI Interface: something that allows you to "interface" MIDI equipment with your computer (so MIDI connections to connect to your MIDI gear, and USB connection to connect to your computer).

 

Anyway does anybody know if this would work along side my apogee duet 2 do what I need it to do? (Enable me to record MIDI notes in from the MIDI out cable on the digital piano)

Yes, it would work.

 

One final thing if this is possible to do I'm guessing you set it up via the environment or 'external intstrument' section?

No, neither, there's nothing to set up, you just create the desired tracks in the Arrange area: an external MIDI track if you want to record the MIDI notes (then in the Library choose the MIDI Out from your MIDI interface), an audio track if you want to record the audio outputs from your piano (then you'd have to connect audio cables from the audio outs of the piano to the audio ins on your audio interface).

[David Nahmani]

The best solution and maybe the cheaper is to buy a midi-usb converter

A MIDI interface is a MIDI interface is a MIDI interface: it doesn't really matter if it's a box or if it's a cable (with a smaller box attached to it), it's the same thing. Which solution is better only depends on your personal preference. Also I believe that device is about the same price as the one suggested by Bart M.

 

Hear me right: your suggestion would work just as well, but not better.

 

If it was me, I trust Roland a little more than M-Audio, so I would probably go for this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/roland-um-one-mk2-usb-midi-interface