Set Up problems

[Ian G Parkin]

I have downloaded the Audacity software onto my computer, the operating system is Windows XP. I have purchased a USB Midi Cable to connect our digital piano to the computer. The Midi cable has small lights on it indicating that it is working but it doesn;t appear to be talking to the audacity software. When we play the piano, there is no response on the Audacity software. I presume there is a problem with the set up, the piano and the computer aren't talking to each other. Has anyone come across this problem before? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[steve]

MIDI is not audio.
MIDI is control data that allows keyboards, synthesizers and such like to talk to each other, but does not contain any audio. There is no sound in MIDI data.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_In ... _Interface

Audacity is an audio program, for playing and editing audio. Audacity cannot record MIDI data.
To record the piano you need to either:

A) connect the audio output from the piano to a "Line In" of your sound card (this is very similar to recording from a tape player, as described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Trans ... uter_or_CD

B) Use a microphone to record the piano.

C) Record the MIDI data with a "MIDI Sequencer" program such as Cubase or Cakewalk. (You will need to read their instructions about how to record from a MIDI keyboard).