Taking my keyboard live!

[adderas]

Hey there guys, and thanks for reading my thread.

I have been learning/playing piano for about 13 years. I am about to go live with them!
I played live for a while a few years ago, but didn't like the organisation of the group. I have finally found another gig.

I often see keyboardists on stage with their laptops - which leads me to my question.
Are they running MIDI live? I don't even know if it can be done. I have played piano mainly and only got a keyboard recently. (Kurzweil SP2X)

Can I somehow take my Macbook with me, and run MIDI with it, getting extra sounds live?

If not, what are these keyboards using the laptops for?


I want to give my performance the best! Thanks.

Jake

 

[adderas]

What kind of keyboard forum is this? 30 views and no replies!? C'mon!

 

[goz211]

Hello Jake. They're likely running VSTs. May be running MIDI sequences or audio tracks too.

You need to have someway of getting a midi signal from your Kurzweil to your Macbook - and some way of getting the audio out.

Maybe one of the Mac people will give you a few pointers. I'm on a PC.

And Jake - there are lots of people on here able to help - you've only just posted. Not everyone is able to check this forum daily.

 

[adderas]

Hello Jake. They're likely running VSTs. May be running MIDI sequences or audio tracks too.

You need to have someway of getting a midi signal from your Kurzweil to your Macbook - and some way of getting the audio out.

Maybe one of the Mac people will give you a few pointers. I'm on a PC.

And Jake - there are lots of people on here able to help - you've only just posted. Not everyone is able to check this forum daily.

Thanks for your reply. I will educate myself on 'VST's.
I am sure people will help. I was being a bit cheeky, is all

Jake

 

[Musicman222]

OK...there are a couple of things you could use a laptop for on stage. U could be running MainStage...which is a software package that allows U to bring some pre-programmed sounds and effects to the set...that U don't have to play (Horns or drums for example). This is usually done for larger sets to make the band sound much bigger than they actually are. Another good use for laptops on stage is "plugins and VSTs". The easy way to think about this is using the computer as the "brains" of the keybaord. So you will play the keyboard...it will send MIDI information via a MIDI cable or USB to the computer...the computer will then generate a sound...and the sound will go out of the keyboard via the sound-card or external sound device.

 

[sloppydave]

Hi Jake.

You're in luck. As far as I can tell, macs are best suited for live musical fiddling.
There's an app called Mainstage that looks pretty amazing, and I'm sure it's not the only one they have.
Even if you have an old laptop that can't handle all that stuff, you can still use it to control the patches/layers/splits/whatever on your keyboard. I for example use mine for just that (I'm happy with the sounds I have, but the hardware interface is useless).