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

[Monib]

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....

+1, that program rocks!

[tosvus]

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.

Ok, first off, did you check Yamaha's site?

Secondly, if you are willing to spend $69 I will offer you a tip on a great deal. IKMULTIMEDIA *DOT* COM is having a group buy for some software they are selling. These work both as independent applications (so fire it up and it will work with your piano), and as plugins to DAW's if you ever want to do more advanced stuff down the road.

I would suggest Sonik Synth 2 (great piano, plus many other sounds). Then you get the second one for free, for instance Miroslav Philharmonik which is a orchestra synth (orchestral sounds). Then since 500 people bought into it so far, you get a third one also for free (I picked SampleTank 2.5 XL). If another 500 or so buy into this before the deadline, you get a FOURTH one, also for free. The remaining choices then are SampleMoog and SampleTron which are a bit more specialized sounds. I bet you have enough sounds to play around with for years (keep in mind that each of these products come with very high quality instruments made up of samplepacks that are each mayhbe 4-5GB or more per application), it works well for your current purpose, and down the road you can use it in more advanced music production if you like.

[lingyai]

My 2 cents here: I have found IKM instruments to be a real PITA to set up and use reliably. I've read that many others feel the same. (Then again, some folks say they have no problems). While the price is right, I would not personally recommend the IKM route to the OP, who is already a bit sick of IT problems, and just wants to play music.

[tosvus]

My 2 cents here: I have found IKM instruments to be a real PITA to set up and use reliably. I've read that many others feel the same. (Then again, some folks say they have no problems). While the price is right, I would not personally recommend the IKM route to the OP, who is already a bit sick of IT problems, and just wants to play music.

I found the process pretty painless now that they authorize the machine differently, but I am a software guy so I don't have problems downloading sample-packs, unzipping them in the right location etc. It is definitely not a 1-click operation though.

Not sure how many apps are super-easy to install if you want good quality samples (since it sounds like OP wants better quality than his built in). He may be better off springing for a rack-synth off ebay to plug his keyboard in, if the computer is too daunting. (Do a search for "rack piano module" or "rack synth module" on ebay)