Connecting an external keyboard

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Hi. Please forgive me if this post is not in the right area of this forum. I'm new here and hope someone can help me.
I have two questions...
1) I own Band in a Box 2009 (282) - bought it earlier this year. I'm at a point where I want to buy an external keyboard and connect it to my laptop via USB. I dont know a whole lot about modern keyboards but my intention was to buy a keyboard controller called an Edirol PC 50 (which has a USB port). I'm not looking for recommendations or denial of what is a good or bad product but just confirmation that a midi controller keyboad such as this will allow me to play the piano sounds, bass etc. which I have in Band in a Box. My laptop does not have a midi input but it does have USB ports. Does a PC have to have midi a input as well as a USB port?

2) I have no idea what is going on here with this...When I open BIAB, set the key signature to C, type in D-7 for the first chors and then move to the next bar the chord which appears in bar number 1 is B-7 -NOT, D-7 - so it's like there is some kind of auto transpose going on for every chord I type in...
Any help much appreciated.

Thanks, Darrin

If the keyboard has USB out put it will connect to the USN input of your Lappy. You'll need to install the drivers that come with the keyboard. The keyboard will then show up in BIAB as an INPUT. I assume your using the VSC DXi to play the sounds. If you intend to play those sounds from that keyboard you will need to use ASIO drivers or the latency will be unbearable. If your sound card doesn't offer ASIO drivers then you'll need to get ASIO 4 All. You still may not like it. I'll let someone chime in that's doing what you want.

Not sure whats going on with the transpose.

Quote:

1) ...just confirmation that a midi controller keyboad such as this will allow me to play the piano sounds, bass etc. which I have in Band in a Box. My laptop does not have a midi input but it does have USB ports. Does a PC have to have midi a input as well as a USB port?

2) ...like there is some kind of auto transpose going on for every chord I type in...

Hello, Darrin.

1. A keyboard like you propose will do what you want. USB can be used to hook up either proper standard MIDI (using a cheapish standard adapter), or a proprietary USB connection invented by your keyboard maker.

If you stick with standard MIDI, it will still be usable after a maker fails or withdraws support for an old model. It is usable with any OS, probably for a very long time, in case you switch to a Mac or to Linux or something.

Proprietary USB drivers leave you at a manufacturer's mercy.

2. You have at some point set your BiaB transposition to read for your alto sax. To go back to concert key, get into Notation Options, find the little Transpose window and zero the "-3 " transposition you have set now.

Larry

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Quote:

Hi. Please forgive me if this post is not in the right area of this forum. I'm new here and hope someone can help me.
I have two questions...
1) I own Band in a Box 2009 (282) - bought it earlier this year. I'm at a point where I want to buy an external keyboard and connect it to my laptop via USB. I dont know a whole lot about modern keyboards but my intention was to buy a keyboard controller called an Edirol PC 50 (which has a USB port). I'm not looking for recommendations or denial of what is a good or bad product but just confirmation that a midi controller keyboad such as this will allow me to play the piano sounds, bass etc. which I have in Band in a Box. My laptop does not have a midi input but it does have USB ports. Does a PC have to have midi a input as well as a USB port?

Hi,

Yes, that keyboard controller can be used with BIAB.

The online .pdf of the owner's manual for the PC-50 is here:

http://www.ediroleurope.com/manuals/PC-50_e4.pdf

Good idea to search the web for the mfr's website and look for Support and see if they've web published the manual for that new piece of gear you are thinking about picking up. Study the manual looking for things that may indicate that it won't do what you want it to do. But that can be daunting if you've not worked with MIDI very much before now.

So I took a look for you.

Pages 15 and 16 of the manual describe how to install the included drivers on CD rom to your computer if its XP OS. Other OSs are listed also. XP, Win2000 and ME/98. No mention of Vista or Win7.

So I revisited the Edirol website's Support section and used their Search function to find that they have webpublished all kinds of drivers for this keyboard that you can download and use for installation: Win7 64, Win7 32, Mac OSX 10.2, Vista 64, Vista 32, there's a lot more also, and they are up to ver. 2.0.1 for XP and 2000.

So I would not even use their supplied CD, which is likely outdated, I would go to the website and download the latest drivers for my Operating System and use those instead. They likely solve problems.

The Drivers page for the PC-50 is here:

http://www.roland.com/products/en/_support/dld.cfm?ln=en&dsp=0&iCncd=789

Bookmark the drivers page, download the .pdf manual.

Looks like a good MIDI keyboard controller and with that kind of driver support, I may be interested in one myself! (Yeah, like I need another MIDI controller around here, the wifey just looked up like she knew what I was typing... grin)

Quote:

2) I have no idea what is going on here with this...When I open BIAB, set the key signature to C, type in D-7 for the first chors and then move to the next bar the chord which appears in bar number 1 is B-7 -NOT, D-7 - so it's like there is some kind of auto transpose going on for every chord I type in...
Any help much appreciated.

Thanks, Darrin

Very likely you accidently bumped one of the Transpose settings.

Inside BiaB, Prefs -> Transpose and check all the settings there. Top ones should be zero ( 0 )

Bottom should say, "No Transpose" and have a C in the little window to the right of it.

If that doesn't do it, report back on this thread and we can dig deeper. But that usually does it.

Have Fun,

--Mac

Darrell:

Mac's right about the menu location of your transposition trouble. It's not the setting in the Notation Options, which just shifts notes, not chords in the chord sheet. Don't waste any time there, as I first advised.

Larry

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