Greetings. Thank you in advanced for your time. I hope my question is simple enough. About two years ago I purchased in older black Alesis QS 8 Keyboard. It is a great unit minus the dust. I recently just purchased a new Apple Mac 12" Powerbook and have an iMac g4 for my daughters. I would like to hook up the older QS8 to the computers to use Gargeband, but alas the connections are now a bit more challenging. I want to be able to send midi information to this program to trigger the softwares own instruments, as well as utilize the "live" track recording feature to record the sounds that the Alesis keyboard has in its banks.
The QS8 has the obvious midi connections wherein I could use a product like the MidiMan UNO 1x1 midi to usb interface. But I assume that I would loose the "live" audio that the keyboard can produce with its own sounds since I would simply be sending midi information.
Before, I used to use the serial connection on the back of the QS8. This seemed like the best way to connect to the computer but the newer computers do not have serial connections, and the converters are far too expensive of a solution.
What do you think is the best way to get both midi, and the music the QS8 and its sounds can produce, into a computer. Can the Digital Output on the rear of the piano be utilized? The manual refers to just ADAT. Should I just use the midiman usb conversion, and then in addition use some sort of converter to RCA cable, and then yet another converter to bring the RCA into my Mac? Or could I somehow use the headphone jack of the Roland powered speakers I have attached to the QS8, and then connect that to the headphone jack of the computer. I know, I know think how confused I am. Could the iMic product help in some way?
Also can anyone recomend a great piano teaching software for me and my daughters? There don't seem to be any good ones.
The QS8 has the obvious midi connections wherein I could use a product like the MidiMan UNO 1x1 midi to usb interface. But I assume that I would loose the "live" audio that the keyboard can produce with its own sounds since I would simply be sending midi information.
Before, I used to use the serial connection on the back of the QS8. This seemed like the best way to connect to the computer but the newer computers do not have serial connections, and the converters are far too expensive of a solution.
What do you think is the best way to get both midi, and the music the QS8 and its sounds can produce, into a computer. Can the Digital Output on the rear of the piano be utilized? The manual refers to just ADAT. Should I just use the midiman usb conversion, and then in addition use some sort of converter to RCA cable, and then yet another converter to bring the RCA into my Mac? Or could I somehow use the headphone jack of the Roland powered speakers I have attached to the QS8, and then connect that to the headphone jack of the computer. I know, I know think how confused I am. Could the iMic product help in some way?
Also can anyone recomend a great piano teaching software for me and my daughters? There don't seem to be any good ones.