I own a td9k2 roland electric drum kit and i have just bought a usb to midi cable to try and record some beats onto audacity but i cant get it working, all that happens is the sound is picked up from my computer mic (and not the drum kit via the cable). Does anyone know if it is possible to record this way? I plug the midi in and midi out into my drum module then connect the usb to my laptop (windows vista).
Alternatively i can record the drums straight onto usb via the drum module so i have the drum sounds on a usb stick wav format (i think?) so is there anyway i can transfer this onto audacity?
If you want to record the MIDI data, you need to use a “MIDI Sequencer” program.
Or convert the MIDI to music with keyboard or musical instrument and record that.
People lose track of what MIDI actually is because the computer does a good job of hiding it. You can “play” a MIDI song on your computer and it sounds just fine. What the computer is really doing is making the MIDI instructions play the computer’s own built-in piano (for example) and then presenting the piano music, not the MIDI instructions. There’s a layer in there you’re not aware of.
Another thing that gets hidden is you can “play” with MIDI. For any one MIDI song, the piano will sound different – the sound is up to the keyboard, not the MIDI. My steam-driven, hot and cold running beer keyboard with nuclear sound system will sound not just better but different than the cheap MIDI software keyboard inside my computer. The instruments are completely different even though MIDI thinks both are “Acoustic Grand Piano #1” (an actual registered MIDI name).
I used to mess with MIDI songs and make them play whole wrong instruments. The piano solo as played on the slide trombone.
Perfectly valid.
I know someone who has constructed a pipe organ out of plumbing supplies, valves and relays. He uses MIDI instructions and a special computer to pull the relays and play the music. Also perfectly valid.