I must be too stupid for MIDI.....

[DesertRatt]

I foolishly bought a Alesis Q49 midi keyboard thinking I could add some simple software to my PC and play it as a piano or organ.

When I try to find such software, all I encountered was wildly complicated programs with literally hundreds of buttons, sliders, dials and meters. And, no where on the description do I see “piano” or “organ”.

I have considered that:
1/ There’s no such software available to play piano and organ
2/ I have no frocking idea what I’m doing

3/ My keyboard is for some other purpose like drumming

4/ I’m just too old (72) for the technology

If anyone can help, is appreciate it! In my fantasy, I Connect my midi keyboard to my PC, load a program, select ORGAN, and organ notes come out of my PC speakers!

[desmond]

It's not hard, but as it's new to you, and involves a few components, it will take some learning, as anything new always does.

Not knowing stuff is nothing to do with being old, or being stupid - not knowing stuff just means you don't know stuff. Which is easily fixed with a bit of effort, time, research, patience, and guidance where necessary.

Ok, you have a keyboard, but that makes no sounds, it's a "controller" only, so you need to find some software to turn your computer into a keyboard instrument that can be played and will make piano/organ sounds - it will be easier to get what's called a "stand alone" instrument, as this is just one self contained program that you can just run and play, rather than anything complicated.

What's your budget? Are you after free stuff, or commercial, high quality instruments?

[DesertRatt]

Thanks. I can spend a few hundred, but something I forgot to mention was that I hoped to also record and edit the song on the pc as a part of my home recording. I thought that was the benefit of midi over a regular keyboard.

[desmond]

Ok well that increases the complexity as that’s a whole extra bunch of functionality to learn of more software to use.

[madtheory]

This is a superb organ, and you can record within it as well:
https://www.modartt.com/organteq

You could use Audacity to edit the recording afterwards. If you want to overdub/ multitrack, get Reaper instead. There is lot to learn but the tutorial videos on the Reaper site are excellent.

PS Modarrt also do an excellent piano.

[DesertRatt]

Thanks. That does look like an excellent organ.

What is apparent now is my naive misunderstanding of the application of MIDI. Jumping into a DAW seems to be a far bigger complexity than what I had in mind. I’ll mark this as case closed for now and rethink it.

[DesertRatt]

Thanks. That does look like an excellent organ.

What is apparent now is my naive misunderstanding of the application of MIDI. Jumping into a DAW seems to be a far bigger complexity than what I had in mind. I’ll mark this as case closed for now and rethink it.

[desmond]

MIDI is not hard, and there's not much you need to understand to use it, really.

Basically, you plug in your USB cable from the keyboard to the computer. Now, when you play notes on the keyboard, a little message goes to the computer saying "I've hit C3 fairly hard!", "I've now let go of C3!" etc.

Your software running on the computer listens to the incoming MIDI messages, and when it receives, say a ""I've hit C3 fairly hard!" message, it generates the appropriate response by playing a piano or organ sound at the correct pitch back through your computer's audio system.

At a basic level, that's pretty much all you need to know.

[meatballfulton]

DesertRatt,

Modartt also sells Pianoteq which is a very popular software piano.

[commodorejohn]

I'll put in a good word for AZR3 which is quite a decent little freeware B3 emulation.

[DesertRatt]

MIDI is not hard, and there's not much you need to understand to use it, really.

Basically, you plug in your USB cable from the keyboard to the computer. Now, when you play notes on the keyboard, a little message goes to the computer saying "I've hit C3 fairly hard!", "I've now let go of C3!" etc.

Your software running on the computer listens to the incoming MIDI messages, and when it receives, say a ""I've hit C3 fairly hard!" message, it generates the appropriate response by playing a piano or organ sound at the correct pitch back through your computer's audio system.

At a basic level, that's pretty much all you need to know.

Kind of what I imagined. But, as far as I can see, it requires a DAW, which is considerably more complex than I would want to invest the substantial time to learn. Just the screen shots on the adverts look wildly intimidating!
Thanks!

[desmond]

But, as far as I can see, it requires a DAW, which is considerably more complex than I would want to invest the substantial time to learn. Just the screen shots on the adverts look wildly intimidating!

No, MIDI does not require a DAW - *you* require a DAW.

Your initial post that was clear you wanted something simple, and just wanted to play an organ, I suggested the simplest approach possible to achieve the stated needs, which did not involve a DAW (but definitely does involve MIDI).

Then you said afterwards that you wanted to record your playing, so now you need a DAW to host the instrument, and to record your playing. So your needs require a DAW - you've had some good instrument suggestions, all of which will work as plugins inside your DAW, so you want to have a look around and try to find something that will work for you.

Just because DAWs have a lot of functionality, and look complex with all the features open, doesn't mean you have to use them like that. I use a very complicated DAW, and for the most part, it looks like a more or less empty screen.

[DesertRatt]

But, as far as I can see, it requires a DAW, which is considerably more complex than I would want to invest the substantial time to learn. Just the screen shots on the adverts look wildly intimidating!

No, MIDI does not require a DAW - *you* require a DAW.

Your initial post that was clear you wanted something simple, and just wanted to play an organ, I suggested the simplest approach possible to achieve the stated needs, which did not involve a DAW (but definitely does involve MIDI).

Right. That's the danger of trying to help someone who doesn't know what they don't know!

Thanks for all your clarifications - at least now I KNOW what I don't know!

Cheers!

[desmond]

No worries. If you can get to the point where you can load your (eventual) DAW of choice, and it loads by default with a couple of tracks pre-instantiated with your instruments of choice, so you can just play and record, you'll be good to go and probably surprised it wasn't as complicated as you thought it was...

[madtheory]

Thanks. That does look like an excellent organ.

What is apparent now is my naive misunderstanding of the application of MIDI. Jumping into a DAW seems to be a far bigger complexity than what I had in mind. I’ll mark this as case closed for now and rethink it.

The Modarrt plugins do not need a DAW! There's a simple recorder built in. Makes an audio file that you can edit later, with Audacity.

Easiest way for you to get started.