Connect TD9K2 drums to Garageband

[The National]

Hello everyone

I recently bought my MPB 13" and been following this site for a while, so decided to register.

Next to my MBP, I also own a Roland TD9K2 digital drumkit and a cable with Midi In&Out on one side and a USB-port on the other. So that brings me to the next question: How can I record my drums on Garageband with the named tools? Or is that just impossible?

Thanks in advance

 

[The National]

is there another place on this forum where I can ask my question?

 

[mchalebk]

This is probably more of a "peripherals" question.

There are many MIDI I/O devices that will allow you to connect any MIDI device to your Mac (which will then allow you to record in GB). It's possible the USB port might allow that, but you'll have to check out the manual for your digital drum kit. It should tell you if it can be used to record the MIDI info on a computer.

 

[The National]

Thanks a lot for the response!
I'll check my manual.
Still, if anybody else knows more about my question, feel free to respond

 

[Studio96]

Hello, are you trying to record the sounds from your drum machine as audio, or use the drum machine to trigger sounds in Gb?

 

[The National]

I would like to record the sounds from my drum machine as audio.

 

[Studio96]

I surprised there isn't a music section on Macrumours, but thaw by the by.

To record audio from your drums you will either need an audio jack lead, probably a twin 6.3 mm to single 3.m jack (a 'Y' lead) to plug from the L / R output of the drum module, to the line in of your mac. Then, use GarageBand to record as an instrument audio source.

The other, more professional way is through and audio interface, which would take your drum output, route it through an interface, and connect through a FireWire or USB cable, into you Mac. GarageBand would see this asthe audio source and record that.

There are plenty of interface choices about, as well as leads - don't pay over the odds fr a lead when there are many reputable suppliers on eBay.

Hope this helps.

 

[evil_santa]

I surprised there isn't a music section on Macrumours, but thaw by the by.

try https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/81/


yep your best bret is to get a usb audio interface for your mac.

 

[Studio96]

Evil Santa - thanks! (I'll look round more!)

 

[DoghouseMike]

Yea, some sort of audio interface would be a pretty massive bonus for recording anything. But if you can get one with a midi input, that'd be even better. MIDI is plain awesome, and if you were to record the data from your kit as midi, there's a lot more you could do with it (in garageband, or any other music type program) without having to re-record it. You can make them make any sound you can think of (including the noise of drums).

Oh yea, check out the manual, it could be that you can just plug it into the mac with the USB port and record away (either as midi or audio). If you can't find the manual, just plug it in and open garageband, see what it says

 

[mchalebk]

Since I posted on this thread last week, I decided I needed to update my I/O device. My Presonus Firebox has been acting flaky lately (I suspect it might not be completely compatible with Snow Leopard, but who know?), so I ended up getting one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Tascam-US-600...6JVG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314738018&sr=8-1

This has 6 inputs and will allow you to record up to 4 discrete audio inputs, plus it has MIDI in/out. I've only used it a little, but seems to work very well.

For recording from an electronic drum kit, I would definitely want to record the MIDI. With something like this, you could record both the MIDI and the audio, which might allow for some nice effects. Personally, for digital drums, I'd rather have it in MIDI anyway, so I could reassign the sounds.