Note: This tutorial is written to help people get all set up, who are new to using their MIDI controllers with software. By the end of it, you should be able to send MIDI messages from your controller to the software and vice-versa.
Before I start, I’m going to assume that your controller is either plugged into your computer with USB, or that it’s plugged into a soundcard via MIDI, which is plugged into your computer with USB/Firewire. If it isn’t, do that (MIDI Out to MIDI In, and MIDI In to MIDI Out). I’m also assuming that you’ve installed the necessary drivers for your soundcard if you’re using one. All this should be explained in the manual of your product.
Now, open “Audio/MIDI Setup” which is located in your Utilities folder. You should see something like this:
It may automatically detect it if you press ‘Rescan MIDI’. Otherwise, you’ll need to tell your computer what devices you have set up or it won’t detect them in the program you’re planning on making music with. If you’re not using a soundcard, but are directly connected to your computer with a MIDI In/Out to USB adapter, the adapter will act as your soundcard and you still have to set it up. To do this, click on the “Add Device” button and one will appear.
Double-click on the new external device to fill in its information. A window will appear where you can name it, specify a manufacturer and a model. Enter the information for your soundcard/adapter first. Mine looks like this:
When you’re done, click ‘Apply’ and you’ll see the newly named device with arrows below it, as long as the computer recognizes that it’s a soundcard and not a controller. If the arrows appear above the device, that probably means your drivers (which come on a CD with the product) aren’t installed (which means you didn’t follow my flawless instructions and install your driver before starting this tutorial). Now, do the exact same thing with your keyboard. Create a new device and rename it according to its Manufacturer and Model name. After you’ve created both devices, you should have something like this:
Now what you need to do is virtually plug your controller into the soundcard or adapter. Click on the up/down arrow of the soundcard/adapter and drag the chord down to the corresponding up/down arrow on your controller. Now the In and Out of the controller should be connect to the Out and In of the soundcard/adapter, respectively, like so:
Your soundcard/controller is now recognized by your computer. Yay! You can verify this by clicking ‘Test Setup’ and playing some notes on your controller. There will be visual feedback if it’s working. But for you to be able to use it with software, you have to specify in that program that you want to use it as your input. I’ll give you Reason and Garageband in my example because I’m so nice, but the steps should be pretty much the same for any other program involving audio, including ones like Skype.
Open the program and go to the preferences. Likely in the ‘Audio’ tab, you’ll have the option of setting your audio input/output (in Reason, there’s no Audio Input because Reason doesn’t allow you to record audio). What you should choose for your output depends on your setup. If your monitors are plugged into the output on your computer, then choose your computer’s audio output. If your monitors are connected to the output on your soundcard, choose your soundcard as your audio output. Obviously if you’re not using a soundcard, you’ll want to choose your computer’s output. If you have a soundcard, your input should always be set to your soundcard because why the heck would you want to record with your computer’s line in if you had a soundcard? Exactly. Anyway, mine looks like this:
This is what you'll see in Reason's preference pane.
And this is what you'll see in Garageband's preference pane.
As you can see, Garageband automatically detects your MIDI input so you don’t have to set it up. Notice where it says, “1 MIDI Input(s) detected.” In Reason, you have to do the same thing as we did to set up our devices for the Mac. Go to the ‘Keyboards and Control Surfaces’ tab. You’ll probably notice that under ‘Attached Surfaces’, there’s nothing there. Try clicking ‘Auto-detect Surfaces.’ It may find your controller by itself. Otherwise, we do the same thing as we did before: Add a new surface and fill in the info (Name, Manufacturer, Model, etc…) and click OK. Now it will be added to the list of attached surfaces and you can check off the ‘Use with Reason’ box. It should be working:
So there you go. That’s how you get stuff working in your thing. If this didn’t work for you, leave a comment and I’ll try to help you. If it did help, leave a comment so I can feel good about myself. Thanks!
An important part in achieving an accurate scratch sound has to do with mixing different noise settings. You have three different oscillators to fill with different kinds of noise. I find it’s good to have a ‘Static’ noise oscillator because it’s really crackly and gives it a really good sound. Other than that, fiddle around with the other noise settings until you have a combination of noises that sound kind of like the record scratch you’re going for and change the levels for them if certain oscillators are too loud. On the right is what I ended up with.
