Some questions from a beginner.

[DSCook]

Thanks For Your Help In Advance.

Just a few questions that are all pretty random, any help would be greatly appreciated.

First of all.
Audio interfaces with MIDI ports.
Is there any good for value Audio/MIDI Interfaces you could recommend? 2 MIDI ins would be great, and it has to be USB... as i have no FireWire ports
Plus, two MIDI ports... that means i can run the two MIDI keybaords seperatly and simultaniously right?
And still on the subject of audio interfaces, how do they actually work?
Will a good soundcard be needed to handle it? or does it not matter?
Im very confused about the whole thing, and cant seem to find any information on how the darn things work.

Next up is Some MIDI keyboard questions...
The Axiom 61 i have... is there any way to assign them to play different MIDI tracks in ableton on different sections of my keyboard?

Like...
2 MIDI tracks, one running a bass track VSTi in Reaktor, and the other running a lead in Reaktor, is there a way to assign the bass track to the lower end of the keyboard and the lead towards the higher end?
I know its possible in Sampler... but its Reaktor i use for most of my synth work...

Also, if possible, is there any good free links to individual drum samples? that would be great if there was.

Thanks again

Deano

[Tone Deft]

geez guys, 20 views and no help??


sound cards - look at peoples' signatures to see what they use. M Audio has the cheapest stuff but has a reputation as crap gear, YMMV (your mileage may vary). go to sites that sell gear, sort by price and see what you can find.

2 midi ports - you probably won't find that, M Audio does sell small midi merge boxes that to this. you can also connect device 1's midi ports to device 2's midi ports then connect device 2 to your sound card, IOW chain them together.

how do sound cards work... too long of an answer for that. try wikipedia, start with audio latency and go from there.

sections of a keyboard doing different parts - in Live there are two ways to separate midi devices, by port (where they're connected) and by midi channel. if you can change what channel the keys send that's the easiest way. look for options like 'keyboard zone' on the controller. also read the manual on racks and note zones, you can do what you want in one track.

hth that's a lot of stuff to ask about.