Recording Both Audio and MIDI from Motif into Pro Tools With M-Box

[chuckm1961]

I am new to using this technology .... just this week, I got Windows XP system and the M-Box with Pro Tools software. Already had a Yamaha Motif keyboard (that was hugely underused in my old Windows 98 setup, going into a sound card).

I want to record in Audio, because that's what I'm used to. But I also may want to take my tracks into a studio for mastering and such, and the studio guys tell me to record in MIDI for their purposes.

So I desire (I guess) to record in both Audio and MIDI, or have the ability to create both.

And, to top it off, I want my finished product to have the Motif sounds. As I understand MIDI (very little), it is not recording patches (sounds) but only events.

So I have many options here, and not sure what to do. To get MIDI, I could run USB out of my Motif directly into my computer. OR, I could run MIDI cables from the Motif into the M-Box. Which do I do?

And how do I record both Audio and MIDI at the same time? Or do I record MIDI first, and make Audio later?

And, for bonus points (!!), the Pro Audio books say I should not use the system drive for recording. Minimally, how big should the drive be that I use for recording? I will not be a big-time editor of my tracks.

[JrummerJ]

You should be able to record both the midi and the audio at the same time, no problem. You could do the midi first and then audio, but if your performance is good and no midi editing is needed, then you've got both in 1 shot.

All you need to do is run an audio out(s) and midi out into the Mbox. Then it PTs, create a mono/stereo audio track, depending on your need, as well as a midi track. On the audio track select the appropriate analog input. On the midi track select the Mbox midi in channel or All.

Set levels for the audio track and record away.

For what you are doing, I wouldn't think that using the system drive would be too big of a problem. Try it, if it works, it works.

J

[5454stevef]

And, for bonus points (!!), the Pro Audio books say I should not use the system drive for recording. Minimally, how big should the drive be that I use for recording? I will not be a big-time editor of my tracks.


As a rule of thumb, one minute of (mono) audio at 16bit, 44.1Khz takes up about 5MB - so you'd get 200 "track-minutes" of audio storage in 1GB of space. 24 bit audio takes up about half again that much space, and the space requirements go up proportionally with higher sample rates. I typically record at 24 bit, 44.1 khz and I've currently got about 40 gigs worth of audio on my drive, with about 80 gigs free space. That's a bunch of audio... I back it up regularly to another drive, most of it is on there for convenience. The more contiguous free space you have on your drive, the fewer problems you'll experience as you stream stuff in real-time.

Also I've not had any significant problems recording to my system drive, but I have very few other programs, and nothing that I know of that runs in the background, on this particular computer. If you do use your system drive, be sure to do all the stuff Digi recommends to minimize the chance some background program will wake up and start grabbing resources. If you're basically just recording a couple of tracks at a time I wouldn't expect there to be many problems.

SF

[chuckm1961]

Thanks all for the replies. Very helpful....

Another question. When I set up MIDI from my Motif to the computer, does it matter whether I :1) run MIDI cables into the M-Box; or 2) run USB out of the Motif and directly into my computer?

Either way, I figure I will get MIDI data. Just wondered if there was an advantage to one way or the other that I may not know about.

[5454stevef]

Thanks all for the replies. Very helpful....

Another question. When I set up MIDI from my Motif to the computer, does it matter whether I :1) run MIDI cables into the M-Box; or 2) run USB out of the Motif and directly into my computer?

Either way, I figure I will get MIDI data. Just wondered if there was an advantage to one way or the other that I may not know about.

It might be easier to configure PT to use the port on the Mbox. Probably less chances of USB conflicts, etc. too.

SF

[JrummerJ]

Unless your board has the option of being powered by the usb bus, like the M-Audio Axiom 61 I use, then I would recommend just connecting it through the Mbox. If you use the usb connection, and the keyboard is not powered on when you launch PTs, you will have to shut down PTs, power on the board, and then re-launch PTs.

J

[chuckm1961]

Wow, thanks for quick replies. I will definitely plug MIDI into the M-Box, based on what I'm hearing here.

[chuckm1961]

A MIDI question from a MIDI-newb:

The way I plan to record is to lay down one track at a time from my Motif into Pro Tools. As I said early in the post, I may want to take my songs into a studio later for polishing.

Given these parameters, does it matter what MIDI "channels" I use to record? I have to set MIDI send/receive channels on both my Motif and in Pro Tools, and I don't know what to do.