Roland R-8, Garageband & MIDI-USB

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Level 1

10 points

Roland R-8, Garageband & MIDI-USB

I have an old Roland R-8 that I would like to plug into Garageband.

My goals is to:

#1 Record what I did on the drum machine into Garageband and tweak it using MIDI rather than an audio recording (green verus blue).
#2 It would also be great to import the Roland R-8 sounds into Garageband.

Will any of the above scenarios work? If this won't work in Garageband, will it work with Apple Logic Studio? or other higher end software? I really want to import that music and the sounds with MIDI.

Also, I saw a variety of products to carry the MIDI signal to USB, Roland UM-1EX, MOTU Micro Lite, Yamaha UX16 and M-Audio Uno. Any recommendations here?

Thanks for any help.

iMac Intel, Mac OS X (10.5.2), Garageband, Roland R-8, MIDI-USB

Posted on Feb 23, 2008 6:52 PM

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Answer 1

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Feb 23, 2008 6:56 PM in response to marshman

#1. yes, given that you use a compatible interface

#2. no

as to which interface, just make sure the description says that it's compatible with YOUR version OS (checking the maker's web sire for drivers is a very wise thing to do)

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Answer 2

marshman Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 23, 2008 8:34 PM in response to HangTime

Thanks HangTime. We'll it's a bummer that I won't be able to get those sounds I paid $79 for each sound card back in the day... Are you saying that none of the higher end software packages such as Logic Studio provide that functionality?... intellectual property rights I suppose.

I like either the UM-1EX card from EDIROL/ROLAND which has the last (Leopard) OSX drivers from OCT. 26, 2007 or the M-AUDIO Uno USB which has updated (Leopard) OSX drivers from DEC. 26, 2007. Reviews seem to be even, I have a M-AUDIO keyboard that is great...

I guess I'll continue to look online for SF2 instruments... the downside is most of them have multiple instruments stuffed into a single SF2 file and Garageband only appears to recognize a single instrument out of the SF2 file 😟

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Answer 3

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Feb 23, 2008 8:37 PM in response to marshman

you might want to check in the logic forums, logic offers more advanced features then GB and may very well be able to D/L the sound banks

as for SF2s, check your MIDI controller's docs once it's hooked up. i can use my 49e is select any bank in an SF2

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Answer 4

marshman Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 23, 2008 8:57 PM in response to HangTime

Thanks again HangTime.

We'll I have a Keystation 61es connected via the USB cable it came with into my iMac. I haven't found a way to connect to different SF2 banks in in Garageband. I load the SF2, and go into DLSMusicDevice/Soundbank/ if the new musical instrument is listed (some work some don't) it's only a single instrument every time, even if there are 80 instruments inside the SF2. I don't see any way to dig into the SF2 to pull out the additional instruments... Since you have the same M-AUDIO keystation, what am I missing?

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