I have older equipment,a Ketron SD1 keyboard which has standard midi connectors, midi in, out,thru, NO USB.
I have Yamaha N12 desk which has standard midi in and midi out connectors again NO USB
I also have a Nektar lx 49 midi controller keyboard which does have usb connector but ÑO Standard midi pin connectors.
I have looked at quite a few yt tutorials on external instruments and all of them were for keyboards with usb.
Is there any way that I could record via midi into Cubase 11 Pro and hear the sounds from my ketron keyboard when playing and also when recording the midi tracks as audio be able to record the sounds from my ketron keyboard instead of halion sonic se.
Can I use the ketron as the main keyboard for recording all midi or would I need to use the Nektar lx 49 as master keyboard which would trigger the sounds from the ketron.
I am aware of the local control settings on my ketron keyboard,
Any Advice would be very much appreciated
I am not familiar with the equipment you are referring to but you are most likely looking for a midi interface.
Many different midi interfaces
say you go for this multiple ports interface
you plug that thru USB and connect your hardware thru the proper midi and audio connections to record midi and audio.
if you want to use this keyboard of yours to control Halion it is possible if you have the All midi inputs or the specific midi port on your new midi interface as input on your HALion channel. this is easy to assign in the studio setup
I think that’s only because those videos were made since usb MIDI interfaces became standard. As long as your computer can see the MIDI device then Cubase can too. But you’ll need to somehow have a 5-pin MIDI connector on your computer. Many audio interfaces have one. Or they can be had for pretty cheap.
Or 5 pin midi to usb connector
This is great it’s bringing out the old forgotten dark arts of early midi lol
Simple answer: yes.
More complicated answer: yes, but you need a way to get the MIDI information from the Ketron SD1 5-pin MIDI connector into your computer, turn “local” off, and that way you can route the MIDI to play any sound available from within Cubase.
Assuming you aren’t usung an Atari ST from 1985 (as @Nico5 amusingly refers to), you’ll need a converter from 5-pin MIDI to USB, there are many still available. You only need one, it will have a USB connector at one end and two 5-pin (“DIN”) connectors at the other. Previous posters have made some recommendations, I’ve found ESI products quite good,
Funnily enough I have decent twin midi cable that has 5 pin midi in cable,and 5 pin midi out cable both connected to a USB that I can plug into my pc
Could I use this in some way ?
Almost certainly; what computer/OS are you using (Windows or Mac)?
Windows 10 pc , The Ketron SD1 has got lots of quality sounds,it woul be great to get it working.
I use this for all my older midi devices.
Yes - indeed - there’s a really great chance that it will work perfectly!
Just curious - can you tell what brand it is?
Plug it into your PC, and check if you can see it in Cubase (menu “Studio | Studio Setup…”).
PS I just read the Ketron SD1 manual for you … it has a USB connector? (12, p. 5)
I don’t think that’s USB - but an RS-422 serial port (before USB came along) - I remember having those on some of my Macs in the 1990s
Ketron SD1 image found here
That looks good,I’ll check it out ,thanks.
Thanks,you’ve jogged my memory, many years ago I used a cable from the computer interface on the ketron and connected to my pc,I can’t for the life of me remember what the connector type was that went into the pc,I dont think it was usb but I might be wrong,I will contact ketron UK and see if they can shed a light on this cable, with a bit of luck I might be able to get one,thanks again,that’s brilliant.
This is the cable from ketron SD1 to pc,I had a feeling it was a sort of VGA connector at one end,this should help solve the problem
That’s one antique serial cable!
Even if you found one, is there even a serial port on your current machine?
If you can use it you’d be better off with your
The fat end is an RS-232 DB9 serial connector, which is different from VGA.
PCs used to have those while Macs had the RS-422 like your synth.
I’ve had success using an RS-232 to USB adapter cable for some other (not midi) gear, but are we even sure, that the keyboard’s computer interface port is MIDI?
The much better idea is to use the cable you mentioned having - with the 2 midi ends and the single USB end.
Thus cable did work many years ago but I’m listening to what you guys are advising, to use the midi to usb cable.
So if I was going to connect the Ketron SD1 to Cubase using the midi to usb cable and play and record midi using the Ketron SD1 as the sound source do I need to set up the Ketron SD1 as an EXTERNAL INSTRUMENT ?
Just to make this clear I would like the final recorded audio sound from my midi tracks to come from Ketron SD1 and not Halion Sonic SE.
Thanks.
No. You’d only need to do that if you wanted it to look like it was a VSTi within Cubase - where you could do things like select presets from Cubase. You can also think of the SD1 as if it were two separate devices. One being a MIDI Controller. And the other being a plain old audio sound source like a guitar or singer.