Ableton Forum

Hi.

All my googling steers me towards either people working with USB controllers, or with an ancient edition of Ableton, so here I am.

I am trying to use an older (non-USB) keyboard as a MIDI controller, so that I can record MIDI tracks and toss different sounds on them.

The Keyboard is a Roland JV-30. My interfaces are an M-Audio Fast Track Pro, and a Tascam US-1641. I am running Live 9 on OSX 10.10.

Been using Ableton since 2004, but pretty much just as a multitrack recorder. Otherwise I use tape machines.

Thanks for your help.

both your audio/MIDI interfaces have old school MIDI DIN ports, so you can connect your JV-30 using either of those.

at it's simplest, in Live's MIDI preferences you just need to have "Track" on for whatever MIDI input port you have the keyboard connected to.

So I started doing research before I tried to just play around with the thing. Usually this works out great for me. In this case, however, it threw me off. I sort of understand MIDI, so I figured it would be simple going in, but then the lack of results in the research made my run here. Then I wrote the above post. Then I started playing around with my hardware. Then I was like, "oh that's how you do it."

So, for anybody as dumb as me. Here is how I connected my non-USB MIDI keyboard to Live.

Plug your ancient keyboard into your interface with that weird cable that has all the prongs inside of it. (Keyboard - MIDI out. Interface - MIDI in.)

Live -> Preferences -> MIDI Sync -> Input -> Whatever the name of your interface is.

Then -> Create -> Insert MIDI track -> Whatever the name of your interface is on the little track drop down.

Now I can record MIDI, which is what I wanted to do. Now I just need to figure out what sounds I have in here and how to have them interact with what I'm recording.

Thanks, fishmonkey. That was a fast response!

no probs. note that you don't need MIDI Sync enabled unless you are wanting to sync sequencers. if you are simply playing MIDI notes on the keyboard and recording them then the critical setting is having Track enabled for the MIDI input port...

Having "track" enabled was the preset and it worked. Currently fiddling around.

The next question I am currently chasing is how to quantize the MIDI input after I've recorded it. Is that a thing?

Last time I used MIDI in Live was about 10 years ago, version 2. I didn't use a controller, I just punched stuff in manually with this neat little keyboard window, and I could move the MIDI notes around somehow, too. Both of those things I don't remember how to find, if they still exist.

Thanks again.

Figured out how to quantize while recording.

Edit -> Record Quantization -> Pick your poison. In this case I'm using 1/8 note quantization.

Still a bit curious if there is a way to edit MIDI notes manually should I chose to do so. But, I'm now able to do everything I set out to do so I'm gonna tell my curiosity to STFU.

Thanks again, for your help, fishmonkey. It has been encouraging to have your voice along for the ride while I pretty much figure it out on my own.

Forums are so great. I hope somebody else learns something from my idiocy.

BTW. Still would like to figure out how to manipulate MIDI notes within a sample, if that is even possible. Kind of like being able to edit notes on a score.

When you record a clip double click on the clip.

Whoop, there it is.

This little edit screen brings back some great memories. Thank you so much!