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Hello!

I have a few questions about MIDI and virtual piano software that I wondered if anyone could help me with?

I recently got hold of an old Roland HP-700, originally from 1984 I believe. I've been quite impressed with it so far considering it's age - good condition and a really good price. I am interested in playing with some virtual software pianos as some of the samples sound fantastic. I'm hoping to get the Kawai CA97 next year(or whatever model succeeds it by the time I have the money!) because I love the sound and action. In the meantime though, I wondered if I'd have much of a problem using a software piano with my old Roland since the Roland has a polyphony of 15 notes. Would the limited polyphony cause problems when running the piano over MIDI to the software piano on my computer? I assume that the virtual piano software's polyphony is limited by the computer's physical memory and processing capacities, but what I would like to know is whether the piano will be able to output more than 15 notes at a time across MIDI? I'm a bit stumped and can't seem to find anything about it?

Also, another quick question - Can anyone recommend any good external or internal MIDI interfaces for the computer?

Thank you in advance!

Mitch.

You'll have no problems with polyphony.
You'll be using the sound from the computer, so the Roland's sound capabilities play no part at all.

Thank you MacMacMac for the quick reply. I had a slight suspicion that this was the case but wanted to check before I went ahead and set it up.

I suppose you are confused by the number of channels (16) which is the number of instruments which could be played simultaneously.

For a given channel (and its instrument), MIDI doesn't imply any polyphony limitation.

Regards the midi interface, you just need a cable which converts to USB. You can get very cheap ones, but they sometimes work badly (timing errors or blockages) so they may not be worth the trouble. M-audio, Roland and Yamaha make good one all around the same price:

http://www.amazon.com/Roland-UM-ONE-MK2-MIDI-Interface/dp/B00967UN50

That's if you're using the computer's internal soundcard which is normally good enough if the computer is quite new.

Or, if you are getting a digital/audio interface, they often have midi sockets on them also, so you just need a standard old fashioned midi-midi cable.

http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-M-Tra...ds=digital+audio+interface+usb+with+midi

Yeah, that was one of the terms that confused me slightly. Thank you for clearing that up.

Thanks, I shall be sure to check those out. I did purchase a cheap one a couple of years ago for a keyboard I had but it was faulty on arrival and I never bothered anymore. I am looking to build a PC so perhaps having an internal PCI card with MIDI ports on it is the way to go?

Definitely, yes. Though the popular choice these days seems to be for external interfaces. I think this may simply be for convenience, especially as most people are working from laptops which don't offer as much scope for changing internal boards as a desktop does.

However, looking round online, I can't find much in internal soundcards - there are many, many external interfaces from M-Audio, Tascam, Steinberg etc etc. But only highly expensive internal (PCI/PCIe) cards from the likes of RME (over €1000) or very cheap ones like this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/m-audio-audiophile-2496-pci-sound-card-with-midi-and-digital-io-a47hy

I've been using one of these Audiophile 2496 for the last few years: works very well and they cost about £20 on ebay, and the MIDI works fine when needed, too. But they are ANCIENT. I think mine came with software for Windows 95 or 98!

Thank you, toddy! All of the research you've carried out to help me is greatly appreciated. OK, perhaps external is looking more favorable in that case - I guess this would make it easier if I ever wanted to use my laptop with it in the future. I mainly want it to use with a virtual piano standalone application such as Synthology Ivory or something along the lines of that to play through speakers in real time. The sampled sounds in my Roland are pretty old and low-tech so am looking to try and bring it into the modern sampling world!

Yes, all you need is a piano-type keyboard (with some weight to the keys) & with velocity sensitive keys, which your Roland will have.

Popular choice for sound interface for piano here is the Focusrite Scarlett .

Though if you are using the piano for midi input only, you won't necessarily need an D/A USB interface at all because this is mostly for inputing and monitoring audio. If you are using sounds generated inside the computer (VSTi samplers or modelled instruments) you'll only need a MIDI to USB lead (like the Roland one linked to above).

The resident soundcard and jack output may well be all that's needed to take care of the audio side. If it isn't, go ahead and get an audio interface.

Thank you again, toddy, for your input on this. The Roland does have fully weighted keys with velocity sensors. Ok - It would likely make sense to buy the Roland cable and see whether the laptop's sound card is good enough for the VSTs etc. (I think it should be as I have used FL Studio with good success without a keyboard.)

Many thanks again

You should be OK if your computer is reasonably fast. The major problem for VST is latency (delay) or signal break-ups because the computer can't process the signal fast enough. MAC is usually OK, and Windows has caught up over the last 5 or 10 years simply through massive increase in CPU power (Giga herz X several cores).

Nowadays you only have problems if you're running a lot of tracks together in the PC with signal processing and stuff (reverb etc).

Anyway, happy to be able to help - hope it all works!