Connecting A Midi keyboard?

[cosmos65]

Hello all,

I am a recent switcher.

I want to connect a Midi enabled keyboard to my iMac to use with Garageband.

What do I need?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[nixgeek]

Welcome to the Mac! If your keyboard has USB, then you can use the USB interface to transmit MIDI data. If not, then you're going to need a USB MIDI adapter. M-AUDIO and a few others make adapters that will work with the Mac.

Below is a link from Musician's Friend with various USB MIDI interfaces you can purchase:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/rec/navigation/midi-interfaces?N=100001+304893

This is the one that I have. You would need to purchase some MIDI cables (5-pin DIN cables), but this one is a little more versatile than the others with the built-in cables since you can connect two MIDI devices without daisy-chaining:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MAudio-USB-MIDIsport-2x2-MIDI-Interface?sku=701226

 

[ora]

One thing i heard from my musician friends is that if you graduate to Logic later on, you'll want to have the emagic midi interface as it synchs properly with Logic as other interfaces sometimes don't. This was with earlier versions of Logic though, not sure what gives with v7.

 

[cosmos65]

Great stuff.

Thanks Guys.

Now, how can improve my shameful keyboard technique!!??