Midi newbie

[xhippies]

Okay, so I'm completely new to midi and relatively new to Pro Tools. Messed around with several Cakewalk products to record basic guitar, bass, drums and vocal stuff, and thought it was time to step up to Pro Tools and midi.

Here's my set up:

Gateway GT4010 AMD Athlon 64 2.21 GHz 3500+
3 Gig RAM
180gig HD amd 120 gig external HD
M Audio Delta 1010 sound card and breakout
Pro Tools M Powered 7.4

Inherited a Kaysound MK 4902, hooked it up using a Turtle Beach midi to usb converter, opened PT, and it shows as connected but no sound. Should I continue to mess with this thing or invest in a newer contoller. I like the M Audio stuff, but their website says it's not compatible with XP MCE.

I was also looking at the E-MU Xboard 25. Suggestions, help, anything please.

[richiebee]

You don't mention a sound source... have you set up your virtual instruments?

I have a feeling that ProTools also claims not to be MCE compatible. I wouldn't read too much into it, but it could be the problem.

Although the Kaysound may be a budget piece of junk, I very much doubt that it is the cause of your problems here.

Have you used ProTools with anything else and got sound to work?

Why are you using the Turtle Beach converter? Why not just plug the keyboard into the Delta 1010?

[xhippies]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have the vitual instruments set up in PT, but I may not be sure how to activate them. As I said, I'm very new to all of this and may be in over my head. But I love the possibilities.

Pro Tools seems to be working fine on my PC. Although I have not receorded anything new, I have imported several files from Cakewalk and Adobe and have been tweaking them in PT with excellent results.

The adapter that came with the MK-4902 was a 5 pin midi in and out to 2 DB15 pin, similar to a joystick adapter. The Turtle Beach converter allows meto go directly into usb, and PT does recognise the unit.

[richiebee]

I don't know how to use VI's in ProTools either. I'm sure the manual will help out though. I would invest in a midi cable (shouldn't be more than a few dollars), but I guess if the Turtle Beach works, then there's no absolute need.

So, firstly, if you try to record the MIDI, does it actually record the data? I would think that's the first hurdle to get over. Even if you can't hear anything, it should record the data.

ProTools MIDI is different to most other DAW's. I would get involved in the manual... it certainly can be done, and if PT is recognizing the MIDI device, you're half way there!

[xhippies]

Thanks again. I'll spend some time with it over the weekend. I'll let you know how I make out.