Hey guys, great forum here! I've been browsing for a couple of months now, but am now tempted to post a small question. I've been using FL Studio for music production, and it's done me well, but I am just sick of the playing the notes in through the virtual piano.

Now I have an old Yamaha PSS-680 Keyboard, here are some pics I found on the net: http://pages.prodigy.net/rjhuff2/pss680.htm . I want to know if I could use the MIDI Out located at the back of the keybaord and hook that up to my computer. I think there are simple converters which convert the MIDI out to the Game Port-in which most sound cards have. Now how much does this converter cost? Also would I be successful in using this keyboard to play my notes into Music Production programs? I doubt I'd use the synths on the keyboard, I'd probably use VSTs (those are virtual synthesizers right) to make the various synth sounds on the computer.

Now I'm planning on buying Reason. Is this a good one? A couple of days ago I was playing with my friends Mac and he had a program called iMusic. It was a fairly easy to use program, and I'm looking for something like that. I do not really want to use FL anymore, I want something more like iMusic for Macs, where I can play in the notes and add a synth to it. Then add various beats. Is Reason a good program for doing this?

Please tell me if my keyboard would be fine to use as a "key inputer" into programs like Reason and FL. Also what's Cubase? Is it similar to Reason (MIDI Music Composer)? And I've heard much about Ableton Live, what exactly is that? Is is also a MIDI music composer?

Also what some of the better VSTs for creating synths through Reason, FL, Cubase etc. Can I use the same VST for most programs or does each program have its own VST versions? I'm mainly planning on producing trance, chill trance, soundtrack style music, chill beats and hip-hop/rap beats.

Thanks guys, help would be appreciated very much!

The soundcard MIDI cable thingy shouldn't cost very much at all, something like AUS $15, i.e. not much.

And your keyboard should be fine. I started with a PSS580 ages ago, using the midi out. It worked alright, but it had mini keys and they weren't velocity sensitive, so while it was good for working out melodies (better than piano roll), you couldn't really put any feeling into it.

Then I got the Novation Remote25 and things are much better!

But yeah, all you need are your keys, the MIDI converter cable and then you should be able to get fruity to provide the sounds using VSTs. I can't really help you more than that, because I don't use Fruity.

Cubase is a sequencer, pretty high powered, it can do anything reason can, and more. And the same VST should work in all these programs, as long as the program is a VST host.

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Monsoon - Astrosurf

Thanks man, appreciate it. Yeah my Yamaha isn't velocity sensitive so that's a bummer. When I output the notes through the MIDI into the Reason or Cubase for example, will the synth that my keyboard generates be recorded, or will the VSTs handle the synths independtly and just aquire the notes and timings from the keyboard? Or are there options in the various programs to set this kind of stuff up?

Anways, so the three sequencing softwares I've heard a lot about are Cubase, Reason and Sonar. They are basically the same things except some are more advanced right? Do the retail versions of these programs come with any drum loops, synths, sound effects etc?

If you are using MIDI then all the keyboard is outputting is note, timing, velocity, controller data. So yes, all the sounds will be generated by your sequencer, most likely VST instruments.

Reason is a fully fledged studio ready-to-go, although I believe you can't [easily] use your own VSTs or record audio. (you can ReWire to another program to do all this). But I believe there are a lot of people that use Reason straight out-of-the-box and produce some very good music.

Cubase and Sonar both come with synths + effects to get you started, but then you can easily use any further VST instruments and effects, so you'll never run out of sounds. ( you'll just run out of money )

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Monsoon - Astrosurf

Thanks

What's your peoples opinions on Ableton Live? Is that also a sequencer?

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Originally posted by PersianMafia Thanks What's your peoples opinions on Ableton Live? Is that also a sequencer?

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Originally posted by Massive84 its a sequecer for samples. so you can create your own samples outside in reason for fruity for example, and arrange everything in Ableton. the one thing that amazed me from the Ableton demo was the fx devices, very strong chorus and delay, i really miss that in Reason .

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Originally posted by Octanesyco Greetings. My name is Casey. You can call me Moose. -Moose

So Reason, Cubase and Sonar are MIDI Sequencers
Ableton Live is more of Sample Sequencer and FL has a bit of both worlds?

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Originally posted by PersianMafia So Reason, Cubase and Sonar are MIDI Sequencers Ableton Live is more of Sample Sequencer and FL has a bit of both worlds?

Reason FL, Cubase, sonar etc, are sequencers with a pianoroll (midi sequencer) + internal synths and samplers.

Albeton (ONLY so not Fl that is midi) is a more a sample arranger, you can arrange your sampled samples in there, it has no synths i think, just fx devices, like delay , chorus etc..

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Originally posted by Octanesyco Greetings. My name is Casey. You can call me Moose. -Moose