How to record music onto Imac from Yamaha Motif 8 ??

[spiritandtruth]

I bought my son a motif 8 a year or so ago and talk about learning curve. He has always wanted to be able to retain the music he creates but up until now we never knew how to so it. He said a friend told him about the scsi jack in the back and I also see a card slot back there.

I called Guitar Center in Nashville and asked them and they advised me not to use scsi as it's outdated and limited, etc.

He said they had software, etc. there which would allow us to run the piano to our computer and he would be able to save music to the computer that way.

Anybody ever done this and know what he might be talking about? We have an imac running OS X 10.6.8 with garage band on it. I also have a pc. I would imagine the mac is best for this but since we have garage band do I only really need some cables or something to be able to save his music? Any help or direction on this is greatly appreciated.

Ken

 

[proghodet]

As far as i can see from pictures (google) i can see midi, usb and audio outputs (i think i also see a spdif output?) Anyway, you have a couple of options, but most require an audio interface connected to the mac, from which you can either record directly into a daw (Protools, Logic, whatever) or use only the midi signal through a VST.

Most audio interfaces use either 4-pin\ 6-pin firewire, or usb to connect to the computer. You can use audio directly out (jack cables from the keyboard and into the audio interface), or you can use midi cables to connect to the midi port of the audio interface.

The last option is simply connecting the keyboard directly to the computer using a usb cable. However, that may cause annoying latency - don't know how that works on mac's...

If you're using midi or usb, you can use VSTi's from within your daw. Many software synths (vst's) today sound really great.

I don't use mac - never have, never will, so I can't really give you any advice that is mac specific i'm afraid.
Also, i haven't really used garage band too much, maybe other members of the forum can shed som light?

 

[The Y_man]

Ken,

For recording, I use a Behringer UCA audio to usb adapter

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA222.aspx

and run Kristal Studio (free from internet) to record.

http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

The latency (delay) is a bit of an issue if you want to multitrack (but it might just be my laptop) - if that's the case, you may need to look at something a bit more elaborate (read expensive)

The Y-man

 

[DickR]

If you only want to record MUSIC (not midi) download for free Audacity and Lame.
You can use Line Out (or even headphones out) from the keyboard to Line In on the computer and record as WAV or MP3.
Very simple, no need for interfaces etc only a cable with a jackplug on both sides and many people record their 'creations' this way. Lame should be in the same directory as the Audacity files and you need it if you want to save the music as MP3. After recording you can burn a CD or whatever you want to do with it.