Is there any way to record Audio AND MIDI at the same time?

[Siriosys]

Well, having recorded my Piano playing in Garageband with my oh-so-sexy Apogee Duet, I'm more than please with the quality of the Audio I'm getting.

However, I'm wondering if there's a way for me to capture the MIDI at the same time.

I'm using a Roland RD700x series Professional stage piano which has a lovely sounding sample in it which is good from an Audio perspective, however I also want to record the MIDI events while I'm capturing the Audio.

Can Garageband do this or have I struck the "only one track at a time" problem. Does anybody know if Logic Express can do it?

 

[mchalebk]

Garageband can record audio and MIDI at the same time. I believe it is limited to 8 channels of audio and one of MIDI at a time. The key is to get the right interface. For instance, with my Presonus Firebox, I can record up to 4 channels of audio and a MIDI input at the same time.

 

[dXTC]

I cannot definitively say from my somewhat limited experience with GarageBand whether both audio and MIDI inputs can be recorded simultaneously. I do believe multiple audio inputs can be routed to the same Real Instrument track, but I don't know whether individual inputs can be routed to individual tracks.

I can understand why you would want to record the audio from your piano (I'm a big Roland fan myself, and the RD series indeed sound gorgeous), but the MIDI implementation on GarageBand is limited. Even if you managed to get the MIDI notes in, GarageBand does not echo the notes back via MIDI Out; MIDI tracks must be played back using the internal synth. If you edited the notes, they would play out of time with the previously-recorded audio on GarageBand's own piano sound.

Logic Express has more full-featured MIDI implementation and can probably do what you're looking for, especially if you want to retain the ability to edit the MIDI notes, then use those notes to retrigger the Roland's sound engine and re-record the audio track.

 

[jackerin]

According to the specs it has USB for MIDI, so just hook that up. Once you have it working in Garageband being able to trigger software instruments, just make a new real instrument track, turn the volume down on the software instrument, then arm both for recording (the button with the little red light that comes on as you switch between tracks).

If you want MIDI out then have a look at midiO, it needs a bit tweaking to work it, but it's a good stop-gap if you can't go Logic just yet.

 

[mchalebk]

I have recorded as many as four audio tracks into Garageband at one time. GB tracks can be assigned to mono or stereo inputs. I assigned the four inputs to four different tracks, but I could have done two stereo tracks, or one stereo and two mono.

It is true that GB will not output MIDI. If all you want to do with MIDI is use the software instruments in GB, it is fine. And, once again, you can record one MIDI track simultaneously with multiple audio tracks.

dXTC said the following: "If you edited the notes, they would play out of time with the previously-recorded audio on GarageBand's own piano sound."

Not sure why you say this; there is no reason why the MIDI notes will be out of sync with the digitally recorded audio (unless you use an I/O with noticeable latency). Furthermore, if they are, it's pretty easy to move the recorded info around to get them into sync.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of looking at Logic Express, just trying to point out that Garageband is quite powerful and can handle a lot more than most people realize.

 

[Siriosys]

Thanks for the responses ppl,

Jackerin's solution worked a treat! I didn't realise that more than one track could be 'armed' for recording. So, I've successfully been able to do exactly as I needed.

Turning off all the quantization enables me to capture pretty much what I'm playing and the MIDI and Audio certainly don't seem to get out of sync that way.

If I have quantization set up, yep, then it all kinda goes pear-shaped

Thanks again!



R

 

[dXTC]

dXTC said the following: "If you edited the notes, they would play out of time with the previously-recorded audio on GarageBand's own piano sound."

Not sure why you say this; there is no reason why the MIDI notes will be out of sync with the digitally recorded audio (unless you use an I/O with noticeable latency).

My point was that if Siriosys recorded the MIDI and the Roland's audio simultaneously, then edited the MIDI notes (quantization, removal of accidental notes, etc), those MIDI notes when played back through GarageBand's internal synth would be slightly off-time from the original Roland recording. Muting the MIDI track during playback would be OK in this instance. However, GarageBand would not be able to automatically re-record the Roland audio track from the edited MIDI track, as GB doesn't do MIDI Out.

Nevertheless, I'm glad Siriosys found an effective solution.