Hi, I have a Casio Privia and a newly purchased Digidesign Mbox 2 for recording. I have never tried recording before and am a bit overwhelmed by ProTools.

I understand that the Mbox has the capability for recording audio and midi at the same time, but I need some help in this area.

1. When recording audio from the Casio I have noticed that Pro Tools is creating two identical audio files,one for the left channel and one for the right. Is there a simple way to ensure that the audio is recorded in stereo?

2. I am having trouble figuring out how to get midi recorded. midi out from the Casio is plugged into the midi in on the Mbox, however nothing appears to be recorded.

Can I still play the main Casio acoustic piano and have midi output, or must I select an inbuilt Casio midi sound to record?

Finally, can anyone recommend some good software for converting a midi signal into manuscript.

Thank you for your help.
Steve

OK, so I have managed to record midi from the Casio, although not using ProTools.For some reason the midi options are not showing up for the new track.

So I have started recording stereo audio from the Casio. It sounds very good when listening through the Mbox whilst playing, but when listening to the audio recordings they are very shallow. Is there an optimal relationship between the volume on the keyboard and the gain level on the sound card? I have been trying all possible combinations.

Hi sjan,

what do you mean by shallow ? thin sound ? no bass or no treble ?

to get the best sound you want the casio to be at the max volume without peak distortion (to minimize noise level) and you ajust your soundcard to get a 0 vu in the recording software.

Ajust the Casio volume at 75% and ajust the soundcard to get 0 vu when you play loud music, if you hear distortion lower the casio and reajust the soundcard.

hope that help.

Serge

For Midi to Score, I use Finale. I can set my mid point (Middle C usually) and then play straight into Finale. I just need to set it to view as a page of music and I can then print it. I also get score from Garageband and Logic, but it is not as easy to get the printed score from Garageband. I have to open a captured piece from GB into Logic and then I can print it. I like to capture from GB because it's less finicky about Keyboard use. (at least that's my experience)