Is there a keyboard capable of...

[Sigurd]

Transferring directly from the keyboard itself to a DAW (in my case Logic X). I just read about Yamaha's Montage and it is capable of composing and through a USB being able to transfer like 32 tracks directly into a DAW. I would find that incredible. I currently have a Yamaha Motif XS8 and a Kronos but the recording is a bit difficult with the board itself, especially the Kronos. However I have to transfer one track at a time and I find that painful. I thought I may be able to transfer multiple tracks with the Motif and a firewire but was never able to make that work. Is there any board out there that can transfer both the keyboard sounds (thus saving my CPU in my computer) directly into my DAW? I would consider selling both the Motif and Kronos for a board like the Montage. However before I do that I would like to see if there are any other options.
Thank you in advance...

 

[happyrat1]

The only thing I can think of that even comes close is the Studioblade line from Music Computing Inc.

http://musiccomputing.com/music-production/

What they really are are dedicated computer workstations integrated with a musical keyboard and any sort of musical DAW or VSTi you could imagine.

Available in both Windows and Mac flavours.

They start at $5000 USD each but fully loaded one can run you up to $12,000.

Pricey but they are popular with film production studios these days.

Not really the sort of thing you'd want to tour with though.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Could you clarify what you mean by "Transferring directly from the keyboard itself to a DAW," as I thought all MIDI keyboards can do that?

As far as "through a USB being able to transfer like 32 tracks directly into a DAW," this is possible because the MONTAGE can use two MIDI Out ports at the same time-- the MIDI Out DIN port being one, and the USB-MIDI port being the other.

Yamaha came out with three or four "levels" of their XG standard-- three if you consider XGlite to be a "lite" version of XG Level 1, or four if you consider it to be a level of its own. XGlite and XG Level 1 can use one MIDI port; XG Level 2 can use two ports (32 channels); and XG Level 3 can use four ports (64 channels). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_MIDI_standards

Some of Yamaha's tone generators and higher-end arranger keyboards can use two ports, and at least one of their tone generators can use four ports, but I don't know if any of their keyboards can use four ports. I'll check later and see about making a list of them.

You should be able to transmit the MIDI channels of both keyboards' ports to your DAW at the same time if you use an audio interface with appropriate connections.

And if, by chance, you were talking about audio tracks rather than MIDI channels, I'm pretty sure neither the MONTAGE nor any other keyboard can output more than one audio signal at a time (counting stereo as "one" signal)-- i.e., the sounds from all the channels get mixed together and sent as one signal. Some keyboards provide a variety of options for audio output-- USB port (Yamaha's arrangers don't send audio over USB, but some of their synths do), headphones jack, separate jacks for left and right channels, etc.-- but I haven't heard of any that let you direct specific MIDI channels to play over specific audio connections. An obvious exception would be if you pan some MIDI channels hard left, and pan the rest hard right, to get two mono channels. You could do that on both keyboards, then connect their audio outputs to separate Audio In connections on your computer (if it has more than one).

 

[Fred Coulter]

According to Yamaha, you can send 16 discrete channels of sound across the USB cable.

Connect MONTAGE to your computer with a single USB cable and capture every nuance of your creativity into your DAW. MONTAGE’s powerful USB driver can send 16 and receive 3 channels of STEREO 24 bit/44.1 kHz digital audio to/from your computer or iOS device (MONTAGE is class compliant, no driver needed!), no other hardware required!​

http://m.usa.yamaha.com/products/mu...ers-workstations/montage-series/montage6.html

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Ah, okay! I guess these show up as 16 discrete stereo inputs in your DAW? And if you wanted you could treat them as 32 mono channels? I clearly need edgy-kay-shun about USB's audio capabilities, as I'm still thinking in terms of audio cables, audio input jacks, and audio output jacks. My old boss had a lot of favorite sayings, one of them being "where the rubber meets the asphalt." I seem to be road kill on this topic!

 

[Fred Coulter]

I'm not making any promises about the quality of the audio transfer; I'm just quoting the web site. I'm not sure I've seen an audio input that supports 38 (32 out and 6 in) channels through USB. But if Yamaha says they can do it...

 

[fiona]

Hey, is there anyone out there who could help me, I want to learn how to play this one song on the key board but i can't read sheet music, and i can't seem to find any for the song i want i was wondering if someone could figure it out for me and send it over in the form A B C D E F ... its for the song: The Angel Song by Ezio
Any help would be great thank you

 

[Fred Coulter]

It is extremely difficult to communicate music without notation. In general, there are multiple notes, in multiple octaves, all playing simultaneously. Additionally, you need to communicate rhythmic variations.

I urge you to learn to read music. There are a variety of free teaching resources elsewhere on this site. (I'm currently on my phone keeping my wife company in the doctor's office, so I can't add a link in this post. But I'm sure that someone will add one soon.)

 

[Rayblewit]

I learnt to read music from "the idiots guide to reading music"
It is simple step by step and fun easy to learn. It relates the staves to the ivory and gives short but effective lessons. It worked for me.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

If you don't know how to read music yet, but know how to play the different kinds of chords, especially the principal ones-- i.e., major, minor, 7th, major 7th, minor 7th-- then you might want to look for a webpage that shows the song lyrics with the names of the guitar chords. If you know which chord is being played at some point in the lyrics, it should help you work out (by ear) which notes are being sung. Try https://www.bing.com/search?q=angel song ezio chords or https://www.google.com/search?q=angel song ezio chords, depending on your search engine preference. But a word of warning-- sometimes the chords shown are transposed from the original key that the song was recorded in, presumably to make the song easier to play.

 

[CowboyNQ]

If you don't know how to read music yet, but know how to play the different kinds of chords, especially the principal ones-- i.e., major, minor, 7th, major 7th, minor 7th-- then you might want to look for a webpage that shows the song lyrics with the names of the guitar chords. If you know which chord is being played at some point in the lyrics, it should help you work out (by ear) which notes are being sung. Try https://www.bing.com/search?q=angel song ezio chords or https://www.google.com/search?q=angel song ezio chords, depending on your search engine preference. But a word of warning-- sometimes the chords shown are transposed from the original key that the song was recorded in, presumably to make the song easier to play.

Fiona, my initial reaction to your post was that it was a leg pull. Actually I'm rather hoping it was, in which case I say: Bravo!

However, if I'm wrong, allow me to replace "Bravo" with a look of incredulity, and add that Michael has given you good advice here. I'll add the caveat that often the chord charts on these sites are not correct, as they're generally transcribed by hobbyists. So you'll need to use your ear to sense check what's written.

If you're unable to read chords and/or unable to play by ear, I reckon you're cooked.

 

[fiona]

Thanks for all the replies i'll take all of it into advice and see what i can thank you