kband: GarageBand can't recognize MIDI Keyboard

Last modified: Mar 17, 2021 9:42 AM
0 2153 Last modified Mar 17, 2021 9:42 AM
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Your keyboard outputs midi data which tells a midi-controllable instrument what note to play, how hard you strike the key, how long you hold it down, etc. Your keyboard may also output sounds which you connect to some amplified speaker to hear. These are 2 separate and very different things. It's important to understand that you cannot hear midi data, you hear the instrument that is being controlled by the data. There is no sound carried on the midi cable.

Your Midi interface provides midi input from your keyboard, which can control the "Software Instruments" in GarageBand. If your interface is recognized in Audio Midi Setup, and you have the keyboard setup as a controller there as well, then you just need to create a Software Instrument to play. Check AppleCare Knowledge Base Document: Mac OS X 10.3 Help : About Audio MIDI Setup for help setting up the keyboard as a midi controller if you haven't done this yet. In a new song, it creates a Piano Soft Instrument by default, which should play from your midi keyboard,

You will not see the keyboard in the Sound Input and Output pane. This determines what GarageBand sees on a "Real Instrument" track and will always show an audio interface to the computer (example: External Line/Mic in, or if you have purchased an external audio interface it would show up there).

Read AppleCare Knowledge Base Document: GarageBand 1.0.1 Help : Recording a Software Instrument for help with using Software Instruments.

If your Yamaha keyboard has internal sounds you'd like to use, you'll need to connect the sound output from the keyboard to the sound/line in ports on the Mac, the same as if you want to record your voice with a microphone. If your model Mac doesn't have a sound/line in on it, you will have to purchase an audio interface. For information on Real Instruments, read the following:

AppleCare Knowledge Base Document: GarageBand 1.0.1 Help : Recording a Real Instrument

AppleCare Knowledge Base Document: GarageBand 1.0.1 Help : Adding a "basic" Real Instrument track

AppleCare Knowledge Base Document: GarageBand 1.0.1 Help : Setting the input channel for a Real Instrument track

Hope this clarifies things for you.

AppleGuy

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