Music terminology assistance desired

[EagleKeeper]

Granddaughter is looking at the following Casio musical keyboard .

She has hit me up with questions that I can not responsibly answer for her and desire OT assistance from this younger generations. She may have picked them up at the store. I may understand the technical terms but need to translate it (the meaning/use) to a pre-teen. My understand of the terms are in italics.

DSP Digital Signal Processor
MIDI Musicial Instrument Device Interface
SMF

She would like to be able to download "background" music from her computer that she can experiment with. The link indicates that she will need a USB cable and possibly have to install some drivers and additional S/W for interfacing.

However, can MP3 files be used or is it just special programming from Casio that must be used.
ie. will she be stuck with essentially whatever, is already "programmed" into the unit for background sounds or can she install her own?

 

[coaster831]

How most of these keyboard/sequencers work is this:

You can't use mp3 files. You can, however, use a software sequencer on your computer to generate MIDI files that can be read by the keyboard's sequencer to generate music. You can also download MIDI files from the internet to do the same thing.
The difference is that mp3 files are actual audio files, while MIDI files are basically a set of instructions for a computer (or keyboard) to generate sounds.

MIDI and sequencing might be a bit of a challenge if neither you nor your daughter understand it. I'm not saying don't try it, but expect somewhat of a learning curve.

Edit: SMF stands for "Standard MIDI File". It basically means that if you create a MIDI file with a particular sequencer that supports SMF (most do), it will translate correctly to other sequencers.

I should also tell you that although I have a good background in digital audio, I don't have a ton of MIDI experience- so regard my response accordingly.

 

[Kalmah]

The keyboard is only going to be able to play back midi files.

To hook it up to the computer is going to depend on the keyboard. I havn't looked at any newer models but I suspect they are still the same as they always have been.

You are going to need a couple things.

Midi to usb converter. (google 'midisport midiman')
2 midi cables.
Software...

I have always liked 'Guitar Pro' for software as it is a standard notation and a tablature program that can send/recieve midi to and from a keyboard. But that's just me.. more practical software would be something like cakewalk.

As far as backing tracks.. you'll need to either find some in midi format, or she'll have to take full midi songs and remove the tracks she wants to play herself so that she can play them, or she can write them herself.

Cakewalk will play and record midi to and from a keyboard that is plugged into the computer from something like the midisport midiman I mentioned earlier. This software is not generally easy to use. And midi is a beast all of its own.

There are 2 different ways to record midi from the keyboard actually.. I thought I should mention it so that you don't get it confused..

Digital recording
audio recording

Digital records the actual notes played by the keyboard.. then when the recording is played back it reproduces those midi notes that where recorded.

The audio recording(which could be done by just plugging the keyboard's line-out into the soundcards line-in) is just a recording of the audio.

With the digital you can change the instrument sound.. (you could play it with trumpet.. but have it play back with trombone.. or whatever) You can also change notes.. fix mistakes.(kind of cheating) You get the digital recording by using the midisport midiman and the midi cables along with cakewalk.

Honestly, it's hard stuff to work with. You're going to need to do alot of reading. (especually when setting Cakewalk up to work with it)

Good luck.

 

[EagleKeeper]

TTT

 

[Harvey]

From Casio's Tech spec page for the keyboard:

For unlimited possiblities Casio has created a brand new keyboard program where wave files can be downloaded directly onto a keyboard via a PC. The full program is available at music.casio.com as a free download. Using this software, new tones, tones with wave data, drum sets with wave data, rhythms, standard MIDI files, songs registrations and DSP settings can be loaded onto a PC, edited and eventually loaded directly into the keyboard. All you need to get started is to visit music.casio.com, download the Data Management Software and you can begin transferring to the keyboard, onto a SmartMedia Card or Floppy Disk via a PC.

That should be enough to get you started.