Novice with lots of issues...needs guidance

[Trackside]

*First let me thank Admin for their welcome....from which you will gather that this is my first post, so hope it's in the right place.

*I am a keyboard player and almost a year ago purchased MBox2 & IMac-G5 for the purpose of recording "Keyboard & Vocals"
*I was disappoint initially to realise that the line inputs on MBox are cancelled out when Mic input is used.
*I have totally failed to understand the set-up of midi in Protool so have been unable to use that facility ( some help here needed)
*Instead I have been channelling both Keyboard & Vocal into the 2 avail inputs and recording all together in stereo.
*The Keyboard in use is a Yamaha Tyros....a top of the range "Arranger" KB...but not listed in Protools list of same

Some basic questions ( Please avoid jargon as much as poss in response.....as I am total novice)
.
1 Can someone help with Midi set up for Tyros ?.
2 In midi recording ...can the various midi Channels be recorded to seperate tracks in PT at the same time ?
3 Can a vocal Track be recorded simultaneously with midi tracks ? ( which is really what I want to achieve )

I have many more (silly) questions, but I will leave them for another day and perhaps some time in the future(probably years away) I will be able to make a contribution to this wealthy source of information

Thank you all for your patience

[JohnnyG]

Here are some free educational videos to watch.

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...396&ref=PTAV-F

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=university.main

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...62&itemid=4768

What you want to do is best explained via video or someone showing you, rather than typing out tutorial details out. Also the reference guide is available via the help menu in Pro Tools and contains 800pages of searchin pleasure. And the mbox2 ignition pack comes with hours worth of Pro Tools video on a standard DVD, worth the watch.

[syd]

Also theres some cool tutorials at Audiotactix, it helped me a lot.http://www.audiotactix.com/links.html

[Trackside]

My thanks to Johnny G and Syd for responding to my problem.
I have viewed the links provided, and while they were useful, they move along much to fast to be able to grasp the basics. They all seem to assume a 'Level" of technical knowledge and use terms and jargon which is not necessarily understood by a novice such as I. However I will persist with these videos and that supplied with PT to see how far I can get.
Thank you again
LeoD

[Trackside]

*First let me thank Admin for their welcome....from which you will gather that this is my first post, so hope it's in the right place.

*I am a keyboard player and almost a year ago purchased MBox2 & IMac-G5 for the purpose of recording "Keyboard & Vocals"
*I was disappoint initially to realise that the line inputs on MBox are cancelled out when Mic input is used.
*I have totally failed to understand the set-up of midi in Protool so have been unable to use that facility ( some help here needed)
*Instead I have been channelling both Keyboard & Vocal into the 2 avail inputs and recording all together in stereo.
*The Keyboard in use is a Yamaha Tyros....a top of the range "Arranger" KB...but not listed in Protools list of same

Some basic questions ( Please avoid jargon as much as poss in response.....as I am total novice)
.
1 Can someone help with Midi set up for Tyros ?.
2 In midi recording ...can the various midi Channels be recorded to seperate tracks in PT at the same time ?
3 Can a vocal Track be recorded simultaneously with midi tracks ? ( which is really what I want to achieve )

I have many more (silly) questions, but I will leave them for another day and perhaps some time in the future(probably years away) I will be able to make a contribution to this wealthy source of information

Thank you all for your patience

I refer to my initial mailing above,and despite responses ....I am still the Novice I was, and am no closer to getting answers to the question above.
In all the PT videos I've seen, the manuals supplied with MBox2, and my personal experience using PT ............I've only ever seen '1 Track' Record enabled at a time.....surely this is not the case in the worlds leading software of this kind ??

Perhaps at this stage I should explain what I am trying to achieve using MBox & PT. I'm really looking for a very simple setup.

I simply wish to record the output of 'Tyros", a stereo arranger keyboard , as I accompany vocalists. As Tyros is being played live with full rhythm section and accompanyment it can output up to 16 seperate channels of MIDI info. I would like to record these at one time so that individual channels /data can be modified later. At the same time of course I want to record Vocals to a seperate Audio track allowing some room for adjustment/correction here also.

Unfortunately I have not seen or read anything that confirms this can be done ...or HOW.....? ? ?

I would be extremely grateful for some clarification on same

Many thanks
LeoD

[asa]

You need to :

1. Connect the Tyros MIDI out to the MIDI in port of your MIDI interface
1a. Connect the MIDI output of your interface, to the MIDI input of your Tyros
2. Create a MIDI track in Pro Tools
3. Assign the input of the MIDI track to the MIDI interface port you connected to in step 1, and the MIDI channel that you want to record data from your Tyros on. You will also want to set the output of the tracks to go back to your Tyros

If your MIDI track input is set to All, then you are only going to be able to record 1 MIDI track at a time.

4. Create additional MIDI tracks and assign their inputs to the same port in step 3, but different MIDI channels that you are transmitting data from the Tyros on
5. Create an Audio track, set its input to the correct interface port you have your mic connected to
6. You can record enable all of these MIDI tracks at once now, as well as your audio track, and record the data in one pass

With this said, you will need a way to monitor your keyboard, if you are monitoring through Pro Tools, you will connect the L+R output your Tyros to analog inputs on your interface, then you will want to create an Aux Input and assign its input to the same interface ports. Now you can monitor the audio signal that your Tyros is outputting from the Aux track in Pro Tools.

Working with MIDI, especially multi-channel, and audio at the same time, can be a bit tricky to get going with. Once you have it, it will make sense.

Lastly, for a shameless self promotion, check out our tutorial videos at www.grooveboxmusic.com , they may assist you with some of the basics. What you are trying to pull off integrates alot of different concepts within Pro Tools, that is why it will be hard to find one tutorial that exactly details your setup. You will have to assemble routing, MIDI, record modes and track setupc oncepts to make this one situation work.

HTH

[Trackside]

TO ASA / HTH,
Many thanks for the very good info you have sent me. I understand most of what you are saying. I am a little confused on how to assign Aux input to interface port....but I will try to find this one out..

I'm off now to check out your site

Thanks again
LeoD

[asa]

Hello Trackside,

I wanted to let you know that we recently launched free limited access to our tutorials online. You will be able to browse our entire list of tutorials, but only watch select ones. There is still a bunch of good info though, including a "Channel Strip Overview" that will help you alot on the basics, like assigning inputs/outputs, effects, etc... We are also going to be updating/rotating new content for the Free members every month. In addition to the totally new content our paid members get every 2 weeks. Check it out, I think the free tutorials will really help you with the fundamentals.

You can sign up at:

www.grooveboxmusic.com