Folks,

I am a nubee to BIAB. I bought the 2008 version about April of last year, and have played around with it but nothing serious.

I played piano back in my youth (late 60s, early 70s - before computers as we know them) and guitar after that until I mangled my left arm in a motorcycle accident. I am trying to get back into music via the keyboard, and also get my 6 and 8 year old kids into music via the keyboard and fun computer programs that teach music. I know lots about computers, build, fix and program them (for a living), but nothing whatsoever about BIAB, MIDI and so forth.

I just bought an old Ensoniq Zr-76 keyboard (workstation?) for next to nothing when my church bought a new keyboard. I built up to a computer to use with it, installed BIAB and got it functioning.

My hardware is:

Ensoniq Zr-76 keyboard
Small VOX practice amp
Midiman Midisport 2x2 Anniversary Edition
PC running Windows XP Pro
NO SPEAKERS currently, just the practice amp.

The computer communicates with BIAB just fine. I use the synth in the Ensoniq to play the midi stream, and I do so for several reasons:

1) I don't have a speaker system for the computer (though I could send the audio out to the amp I suppose).
2) The kids will be practicing on the keyboard and they are unable to understand getting the computer set up to play the sound. IOW the keyboard and amp need to work stand alone.

So when I start, I press a preset voice on they keyboard (piano, organ, sax etc) and I can play the keyboard and hear the sounds via the keyboard headphone or the amp. Playing the keys cause the midi light to flash indicating that I am sending midi messages. At this point BIAB will not cause the Ensoniq to play the midi stream, however playing the keys on the keyboard does cause BIAB to display them on screen in the upper left "half" keyboard.

When I start BIAB playing a song I have to send a "general midi mode on" message to get the Ensoniq to start playing the midi stream. After that I can play the keyboard and hear it and the BIAB song in the headphones on the keyboard. However now playing the keys on the keyboard does not cause the midi light to light, i.e. no midi messages being sent out of the keyboard, though the light for the channel to the keyboard is flashing, BIAB does NOT display the keys as I play on the keyboard, and BIAB is indeed playing it's tune through the Ensoniq synthesizer.

Now, if I press any button on the keyboard synth, for example select a different preset voice for the keyboard, the keyboard stops playing the midi stream. However the midi light is now flashing indicating I am again sending midi messages to the computer, and BIAB is again displaying the keys played on the Ensoniq on its keyboard display.

I assume this is a keyboard issue but I thought I'd ask if anyone has seen this behavior in any other keyboard / synth. Unfortunately Ensoniq is long out of business and it is tough to find forums for their products, especially something like a 10 year old workstation.

Also, something more directly BIAB related, my keyboard volume is very low. Supposedly the "thru" part controls the parameters for the keyboard but changing the volume has absolutely no effect on the keyboard volume. It appears that because the synth in the keyboard is playing the midi stream, the Ensoniq just mixes the keyboard in directly and out to the amp it goes - as opposed to sending the keys to BIAB, then getting the keys back in the midi stream to be played.

So... I have to drop the midi stream master volume down to about 40 to get the keyboard loud enough to hear.

I am wondering if I am going to be able to "record" my keyboard (what I play) back into the BIAB song. It appears that at this point I either have midi out of the keyboard, or midi in to the keyboard, but not both at the same time. Is this normal with keyboard / synth systems or should the keyboard be able to output the keys at the same time it is receiving and playing the midi stream?

I suspect that this whole problem would go away if I just routed the computer audio to the amp and left the keyboard simply sending keys to BIAB, but as I mentioned I REALLY want my kids to be able to play without having to work the computer - keyboard / amp stand alone.

Any assistance figuring this out would be much appreciated.

jwcolby
Ensoniq ZR-76 keyboard, m-Audio Minisport 2x2 Anniversary Edition
AMD x2-3800, 2gb RAM
XP SP3, BIAB 2008