Can someone explain to me how I'm supposed to play my digital piano on a PC?

[hedron]

This is absolutely ridiculous. Every last stupid program I've attempted to use either has chronic stability problems or does not work properly. If it's not the programs themselves, then it could be my sound card. I have an Auzentech X-Meridian 1st version. I've never heard of it being unstable, but the drivers aren't as good as Creatives, in my experience.

Then again, I could just not be doing something correctly.

When I first bought my piano, I had just assumed that Yamaha would have a simple, easy to use program just for people like me who just want to play their piano and have no use for a mini-studio or whatever many of you hardcore people like to use. But it does not seem like that's the case.

So, here I am. Someone please explain to me how I'm supposed to play my digital piano with a PC. Because I have no idea how and I don't want to explain the process I've gone through because it will take too long and I just want to start at the beginning again. I have hardly practiced since the beginning of the summer because of this stupidity and am really considering quitting altogether. That's just how frustrated I am with this whole process.

I have a Yamaha P95 digital piano connected with an MAudio Midi USB cable. I am 100% sure that the hardware is connected properly.

Thanks for any help.

[jupiter8]

Plug in electricity,turn it on,play. What is the problem ?

[whyterabbyt]

Someone please explain to me how I'm supposed to play my digital piano with a PC.

If you've got the piano connected via MIDI, then to play the piano you need to send it MIDI notes. That requires a MIDI sequencer/player of some kind on the PC.

I don't want to explain the process I've gone through because it will take too long and I just want to start at the beginning again. I have hardly practiced since the beginning of the summer because of this stupidity and am really considering quitting altogether.

Not sure why you cant practice the piano without it being hooked up to a computer, so perhaps you could explain exactly what it is you're trying to achieve.

[Burillo]

you might want to look at standalone piano programs, like TruePianos or Pianoteq. They can work without those "hardcore ministudios" (which are btw called DAWs, or Digital Audio Workstations) and are pretty intuitive - you just fire up a program, it automatically recognizes your keyboard (in most cases), you tweak some parameters if you want, and off you go (provided that your keyboard is connected to your PC via a MIDI cable, which i believe it is).

I have Pianoteq 4 Stage, which is the basic version and goes for 99 EUR (i think), though there are currently discounts running at JRR shop (which includes free add-on as well, so you can get a Bluthner or and Upright addon at no additional cost), and it's great.

[ZenPunkHippy]

I have a Yamaha P95 digital piano connected with an MAudio Midi USB cable. I am 100% sure that the hardware is connected properly.

This might be obvious: a MIDI cable by itself does not send audio from the keyboard to the computer.

You will need to connect the audio outputs of the Yamaha keyboard to the audio inputs of your sound card.

Otherwise, if you want to trigger sounds on your computer form the Yamaha keyboard - that is what the MIDI cable is used for.

Peace,
Andy.

[ZenPunkHippy]

Here is a good primer about MIDI and audio, covering the absolute basics:

http://tweakheadz.com/how-to-get-starte ... ng-studio/

Peace,
Andy.

[martygras]

I've not heard of your soundcard, but maybe you could use a cheap usb soundcard like a Tascam US-144 MKII (midi in/out, 2ch audio in xlr/trs, phantom, S/Pdif)

Maybe you don't need a pc.
It depends what you ultimately want to do.
If you just want to record, then a 4-track recorder might work great. ($100-400)
If you need to get your songs on the internet then a digital multitrack will usually let you burn to a cd or copy files/songs to a memory card.

You could also try Reaper as a DAW.

[BertKoor]

@Hedron: can you give us a simplified walkthrough of how you envision to use the piano in combination with the PC?

I've not heard of your soundcard

Me neither, but it does exist: http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-meridian.php
Apparently the "2G" version is latest, he has an older generation. The price was around $140, and supposedly it's a decent audio card. Not tailored to musicians, more a multimedia card. I started with two SoundBlasters to get a 4-track recorder in the PC, and this card should do better than that

[hedron]

Not sure why you cant practice the piano without it being hooked up to a computer, so perhaps you could explain exactly what it is you're trying to achieve.

Because I'm a spoiled rotten brat and the sounds that the piano makes by default sound like I bought 88 tin cans. So, I want some sort of sampling program. I'll look into the program the other guy mentioned.

I play my Moms piano once and awhile when I visit and there's just no comparison. Digital can never beat acoustic. It's just acoustic is way out of my price range.

Here is a good primer about MIDI and audio, covering the absolute basics:

http://tweakheadz.com/how-to-get-starte ... ng-studio/

Peace,
Andy.

That's some good information. Thanks.

Not tailored to musicians, more a multimedia card.

Yea, I bought the card before I started playing. So, I didn't consider any musician friendly features. The thing is that I've have had general stability issues with my PC, and the card has some ghetto looking drivers. I've had sound issues with other programs, but I always attributed it to other things. So who knows? I just mentioned it to see if anyone knows for certain, but I guess not.

Like, VST Host sometimes doesn't even stay open long enough to load a VST? Or I'll load one independently and it'll work fine until I put it in hibernate and then the only way to gain control of my sound card again is by resetting the whole computer. I hate doing that because I have a lot of things loaded.

Anyway... blah blah blah

Thanks for everyone's help. I was just banging my head against the wall with it crashing all the time.

[NightofNi]

You can get the Kontakt Player demo and Amore Grand Piano for free. The Kontakt demo is time limited so it needs a restart after a while but it's worth it. Reaper is a good nonexpensive DAW with a 60 day trial.

http://www.store.precisionsound.net/amoreinfo.php

[VariKusBrainZ]

Can you uninstall the sound card drivers and just try asio4all?
Sounds like its your system and not the software your using.

What OS are you using, do you have all the preinstalled crap still on there and running at startup?

You need to par it back to the bare minimum to find out whats causing the instabilities.

If your using Windows Vista ...... ditch it !!!!

[BertKoor]

the sounds that the piano makes by default sound like I bought 88 tin cans.

Is that when you play through it's own dinky speakers (no surprise) or also when you hook it up to a proper hifi amp & speakers?
Maybe the easiest solution is to trade that Yamaha P95 for another digital piano. And this time do pay attention to how it sounds. Demo extensively before you buy. Yamaha is usually a well respected brand when it comes to digital pianos, but maybe another model or the ones by Roland or Casio suit you better.

I play my Moms piano once and awhile when I visit and there's just no comparison. Digital can never beat acoustic. It's just acoustic is way out of my price range.

You'd be surprised how many acoustic pianos are offered for next to nothing. Some people are very glad to get rid of it. Though be prepared to have it serviced by a piano tuner.

it'll work fine until I put it in hibernate and then the only way to gain control of my sound card again is by resetting the whole computer.

Some hardware doesn't wake up properly from hybernate. Or rather, the drivers don't support it properly. Just how things are
If your system can handle it, you might consider running all in a VMWare virtual machine. Then you can pause the virtual machine and shut down the real one properly.

[Kaine]

t;]it'll work fine until I put it in hibernate and then the only way to gain control of my sound card again is by resetting the whole computer.

Some hardware doesn't wake up properly from hybernate. Or rather, the drivers don't support it properly. Just how things are
If your system can handle it, you might consider running all in a VMWare virtual machine. Then you can pause the virtual machine and shut down the real one properly.

Or just turn off Hibernate... seriously most DAW builders do that as a default tweak.

[lingyai]

An easy-to-use, quite lovely sounding, and cheap standalone virtual piano program is Acoustica's Pianissimo. I use it to practice / mess around on the piano when I don't feel like messing around with anything complicated like a DAW (i.e. one of those software programs that we hardcore people use). A time-limited demo is available. You can learn more here:

http://www.acoustica.com/pianissimo/

(One drawback it has is that when used in a DAW with a multi-instrument project it can be a PITA (as detailed in my review here on KVR)but since you don't want to use a DAW, but rather just play the piano, this should be irrelevant.)

It can be hard for us to help you if you don't wish to detail the problems you're having or what you've tried. You might consider just taking your piano and laptop to a music shop and paying them to get you up and running with something.

One other thought: if you're sick of trying to connect it to a computer, and the built-in speakers are no good, have you considered playing with a decent pair of headphones? They can be had for $100-$150; search on Amazon, specifying this price range, and 4 stars or more; read the reviews; if possible, try them out in a music shop.

[psychoxkps]

i think for practicing is best synthesia.. plug your keyboard to computers usb and set synthesia up.. or maybe u have only midi connector.. so plug it into your interface - u can only need midi interface....