I have a Yamaha YPT-200 music keyboard. It has a MIDI in/out plug. Is it possible to connect it to my computer so I can record the music I make? If yes, how?
Yes definitely, but when I saw the question I first thought you meant your computer keyboard and I was like whoa but anyway, look for a MIDI port on your keyboard (google the image if you don't know what it looks like) and if your keyboard has one, you can buy a MIDI cable and hook that up to your computer from your keyboard. Your computer also has to have a MIDI port on your sound card. Not many computers do so that's why I bought a MIDI to USB converter cable, so that way I could hook the MIDI to my keyboard and the USB to my computer and it works almost as well as a real MIDI cable. If you can't do that, look for a headphone out port on the keyboard (where you plug in headphones) and plug a cable with a male jack on both ends (the male jack looks like the end of most headphones) to your audio in port on the computer. By doing this, you won't be able to hear what you are playing when it is recoding but it is a direct connection and therefore great quality. With a MIDI cable you can hear what you are playing. Also, if the connection out of the keyboard is larger that the standard headphone jack, then simply buy a converter end to put on the cable. You can buy all of this stuff at Radio Shack. If you have any more questions the guys at Radio Shack should be able to help. Oh and BTW, you need special software to record music as well. I use Acid Music Studio 7 and I think it works great but you can shop around. Best of luck