Please help a beginner

[SiberianDVM]

Hi,
I am primarily a singer, but I'm trying to learn to play the piano better as well. What I would like to do is set up a MIDI system to play sheet music on my piano while I concentrate on the singing for now.

I have a Roland EP-85, with MIDI 5 pin DIN ports. The computer I would like to use is old, but works well. It runs Windows XP Pro, with a 3.4 GHz Pentium D processor, 2GB RAM, and has a SoundBlaster 5.1 + MP3 sound card, and I have a MIDI cable input that uses the game port on the soundcard. I think I just need to get some MIDI extension cables to finish the connections. Is that correct?

Then I need software to read the sheet music PDF or scan it (I do have a scanner built in to my printer) and send the signals back to my piano. I only need it to read and play the piano bass and treble scores. This is where I need help the most, as I need something good, will run on my old computer, and not too expensive.

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Julian

 

[SeaGtGruff]

If your keyboard has MIDI DIN ports, the usual approach is to buy a MIDI-to-USB interface cable so you can plug the two MIDI ends (MIDI IN and MIDI OUT) into the keyboard and plug the USB end into the computer. Notice that the MIDI IN plug of the interface cable should go into the keyboard's MIDI OUT port, and the MIDI OUT plug should go into the keyboard's MIDI IN port. That might seem backwards, but remember that the keyboard's output goes into the interface cable, and the interface cable's output goes into the keyboard.

Some sound cards do have connections for MIDI data, but I don't have any familiarity with those, so I'll leave it to others to comment about that.

A third option is to get an external USB audio interface that includes MIDI ports; you would plug the keyboard into the audio interface using MIDI cables, then plug the audio interface into the computer using a USB cable.

 

[SiberianDVM]

Thanks!

I do have another computer (laptop) that is more modern and powerful (Windows 7, 4Gb RAM) so I will get the MIDI to USB adapter for it.

Any recommendation of software that can play sheet music on my piano?

 

[happyrat1]

Piano booster should work well enough with XP or Windows 7

PianoBooster

It only plays MIDI files but there's plenty of MIDI out there to practice with.

If you want to scan sheet music to MIDI you'll have to look around for a Sheet Music OCR Program. Those are not free and probably won't run on XP.

and a USB to MIDI Class Compliant Interface should work well with XP or Win 7 as well.

I'd recommend this one.

Amazon.com: USB MIDI cable Interface midi to USB IN-OUT Cable Converter for Mac PC Laptop to Music Piano keyboard 6.5Ft: Musical Instruments

Buy USB MIDI cable Interface midi to USB IN-OUT Cable Converter for Mac PC Laptop to Music Piano keyboard 6.5Ft: MIDI Interfaces - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I own one and it works quite well.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I think MuseScore might supposedly be able to convert PDF sheet music to notation form and then to MIDI, but I'm not certain. It's free, so wouldn't cost anything (except maybe your sanity and your hair) to try it and see.

There's also the Forte music notation software, which also has a module that's supposed to be able to convert a photo or image file of sheet music (such as taken with the camera on an iPad) and convert it to notation, but that isn't available with the free edition of Forte.

Another option would be to use a notation program to manually enter the score from the sheet music. It would take longer, but the results might be more reliable-- and many notation programs let you input the notes using a keyboard, so that should help.

 

[SiberianDVM]

Great stuff, guys, thanks so much. I'll let you know how it goes.