Capture MIDI (Windows 10) INEXPENSIVELY (Free is Best!)

[Dave Nuttall]

A friend with a Yamaha P-115 called and asked me if I would drive 130 miles one way to record her playing on her keyboard.   If I'm going to do it, I'm sure it will mean additional requests, so I'd like to set her up to be able to record herself and send me the results to edit/produce/whatever.

According to the specs, it has a HOST (type B USB) but no Type A, so I'm assuming the only way to get MIDI is capture on a PC....but what could anyone suggest that is either very low-or-no-cost software?

I'm pretty sure she won't be able to use a DAW (like ProTools free).

TIA.
Dave

[SeaGtGruff]

A DAW would be the way to go, and some DAWs are easier to use than others. If you can get her set up and show her how to record her keyboard in the DAW, then hopefully she'll be able to do it by herself the next time. But you'll want to know how to use the DAW yourself before you try to show her, so hopefully either you both use the same operating system and can use the same DAW, or else you can choose a DAW that's available on both of your operating systems.

PreSonus Studio One has a free edition called Studio One Prime, and it's available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It won't let you record Sy*** messages in the MIDI, and it does require a little bit of setting up as far as MIDI devices, but it's pretty easy to use once you've got things set up.

Tracktion has a free older version of their DAW-- which is called Tracktion, since the newer versions (called Waveform) aren't available for free yet-- and it is also available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Unlike Studio One, Tracktion does let you record Sy*** messages, but to me it seems a little bit harder to learn than Studio One.

Avid Pro Tools has a free edition called Pro Tools First, but I find it to be very complicated; the reference manual is over 1300 pages long, which is never a good sign-- unless you're looking for a DAW that's so advanced and feature-rich that it takes over 1300 pages to explain.

There's also Cakewalk by BandLab, although I haven't tried it yet.

As far as DAWs for Windows, my personal favorite as far as ease of use is Acoustica Mixcraft, but it doesn't have a free edition. It also doesn't let you record Sy*** messages.

[Dave Nuttall]

I was not aware of the Presonus option, and agree 100% with regard to ProTools.
I've been using PT since ver. 7 and probably would go with something else if I didn't have so much time/energy and $$$ invested in it!.

I can check out Presonus before going.
Thanks!
d.

[SeaGtGruff]

If you're planning to go the Studio One route, the first thing you need to know is that you'll need to set up the keyboard twice-- once as a MIDI input device, and once as a MIDI output device. Studio One uses different names for these two types of devices; if I remember correctly, a MIDI input device is a "keyboard," while a MIDI output device is an "instrument." The setup window for the input device will show the MIDI input channels separately, allowing you to enable either all of them or just specific ones. And the setup window for the output device will show the MIDI output channels separately, allowing you to enable either all of them or just specific ones.

Another thing to be aware of is that the free editions of commercial DAWs tend to be very limited in one way or another, often in terms of the number of audio and MIDI tracks you can use in a project. The companies really want you to buy one of their paid editions, and are generally going to give you just enough capabilities and features to entice you into their net, but with enough limitations that you feel inclined to pay for more.

[Dave Nuttall]

I guess most people would suggest that Anvil Studio and MuseScore are for notation, but it looks like they will capture MIDI, so I think I'll make it an incremental journey:
Step 1: Anvil Studio or MuseScore
Step 2: Presonus free
Step 3: concentrate on creating the music and I'll engineer it!

Thanks for the ideas, Michael.
d.

[SeaGtGruff]

Anvil Studio is okay, but only the core program is free. Once you start to get into certain functionalities you must purchase whichever module adds a particular functionality. So before you start to invest any time into learning it, you may want to read over the list of modules to see what functionalities each of them adds, in case some of the things you want to do are going to require purchasing one or more of the modules.

Another option is Cockos REAPER, which is a very popular DAW among home recording enthusiasts. It isn't free, but you can use it for free on a trial basis with no restricted or crippled functionalities, and the free trial never expires-- it just to display a nag screen when you start up the program. I suspect that its effectively unlimited free trial is the main reason it's so popular among the home recording crowd, although the license for nonprofessional home usage is extemely affordable.

[pjd]

If you go the notation software route, you might want to consider Avid Sibelius First:

http://www.avid.com/sibelius-first

It's a free download.

-- pj

[Dave Nuttall]

If you go the notation software route, you might want to consider Avid Sibelius First:

http://www.avid.com/sibelius-first

It's a free download.

-- pj

On the surface, that seems like a very good suggestion; however, as a I am a long-time user of Sibelius, I know that it is really TERRIBLE doing anything with MIDI with a PSR-S910.   

In this case, we don't CARE if we can see fancy notation....we just want MIDI that can eventually be rendered back to WAV so that the performer has her own arrangements/accompaniments to support over-dubbing with her vocals.

Personally, I wish Sibelius was more flexible when it comes to MIDI.    My recording(s) are almost exclusively Christian traditional hymns/southern and country gospel and I probably have at least 1,000 scores that I've created/arranged, etc. over the past decade or so.     It's very good at doing notation, but when it comes to manipulating MIDI, I'm a die-hard advocate/user of Michael's "MixMaster" and other parallel tools (i.e. PSRUTI, MidiPlayer, etc).     My plan is to use MixMaster and MidiPlayer to manipulate whatever we capture from the P-115 and then render it to my PSR-S910 to WAV, do the vocal overdubs in ProTools or send her to a studio with the WAV tracks.

Thanks for the idea.
Dave

[ekurburski]

I kn ow Reaper isn't free.  Its $60.00.  But its free to try and it can be used forever with a 5 second bootup nag screen.  It is a fully equipped DAW and has an excellent set of free video tutorials.  I have PT's, and Sonar but prefer Reaper over both.

[Dave Nuttall]

I kn ow Reaper isn't free.  Its $60.00.  But its free to try and it can be used forever with a 5 second bootup nag screen.  It is a fully equipped DAW and has an excellent set of free video tutorials.  I have PT's, and Sonar but prefer Reaper over both.

Do you CAPTURE MIDI from a Yamaha keyboard with Reaper?

[Dave Nuttall]

APOLOGIES to all.
The P-115 can record/save just like arranger keyboards, so capture on a PC is excessively complex.
Yamaha Musicdownloader will work just fine and then mangle on the PC with fine tools like MixMaster, etc.

It's right there in the manual, but when I saw the spec for USB Host only, I didn't explore the on-board recording feature.

Thanks to all for the ideas...
d.

[SeaGtGruff]

There's no need to apologize. And at some point in the future your friend may decide to dip her toes into the waters of recording with a DAW, at which time you can put your research into DAWs to good use.

[Practical Senses]

https://www.reaper.fm/
Cockos Reaper - lightweight and free