recording krome sounds in pro tools

[Joseph]

Hello, I am trying to record my korg krome in pro tools with an m-box mini on an iMac. The midi records and the sound comes through, but if I were to say turn off the krome the midi would not play. I also tried bouncing the file and the melody was not there. I know this must be a ridiculous question, and I'm a little embarrassed to be asking it, but I'm just no good at this stuff. Thanks for any help.

-Joseph

[andygabrys]

this goes for any MIDI tone module (of which the Krome is as is any keyboard with on board sounds or drum machine).

Using the MIDI in / out on the keyboard connected to your computer / DAW or using the USB port on the keyboard and attaching to your computer / DAW and appropriate setup means you can play on a midi track in your DAW, and it triggers the sounds in the Krome's "brain" and then they can be picked up at the Audio out L/R on the back of the computer, and run into a mixer and you can hear it.

which also means as you said, its useless if you want that sound to be included in your DAW (pro tools in this case) mix, and also useless if you want to use use the Krome for more than one sound in a mix.

So the not very sophisticated but workable situation is to plug the audio out L/R of the Krome into the audio input 1/2 of the mbox and capture that on a mono or stereo audio track within Pro Tools (there are reasons why you would want to do one or the other). basically upon hitting record-play, the MIDI track triggers the brain in the Krome which outputs sounds to the audio out L/R which are then captured in the audio inputs of the mbox.

which means that you can sequence a bunch of different tracks and capture them to audio. One at a time.

On some keyboards that yamaha has there were also some other actual computer plugins - like I think the Mox8 has a hammond organ plugin deal.

Anyways - This is pretty old school at this point (sequencing using the keyboard and an outboard sound module) and if that is what you have for sounds, well rock on.

But if you can swing it, you will spend a fraction of the time programming and tech-ing if you spend some cash on some dedicated third party sound plugins (not to mention just using the stock Pro Tools stuff like Vacuum, Boom, the Minigrand and Expand!), and start programming directly in Pro Tools.

about those sounds - the keyboards tend to have sort of "dated" sounds in them (a gross generalization here) because they are more meant for live performance, not studio recording (again, an opinion based on hearing the sounds). The sounds are all stereo, which usually means a mono sound is made "stereo" by adding a pitch shifted, delayed or otherwise manipulated sound in with the original and panning one hard Left and one hard right. So this gets back to why you might want to record mono - capture the one side that isn't pitch shifted etc, and turn off the onboard reverb / delay before you bounce, so that you can add that stuff later in Pro Tools and have better control over the entire mix sound.

But whatever works for you.

[Joseph]

Thanks, Andy! That was very helpful. However, I now have a high buzzing sound coming through the channel that the Krome is plugged into and it's also on the recorded audio. Could this be a bad cable? Unfortunately, my setup requires a long cable to connect the krome to my interface and I only have the one. Thanks again.

-Joseph

[Len911]

Thanks, Andy! That was very helpful. However, I now have a high buzzing sound coming through the channel that the Krome is plugged into and it's also on the recorded audio. Could this be a bad cable? Unfortunately, my setup requires a long cable to connect the krome to my interface and I only have the one. Thanks again.

-Joseph

The Krome's audio out is unbalanced. Try using a direct box with a 'balanced' long cable. Balanced=xlr or trs connector

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ProDI

[eeoo]

There might also be a -10, +4 switch on the mbox?

[andygabrys]

yeah what Len and ethan said.

also check if the wall wart for the Krome is plugged into a different circuit from the computer / interface. might have just crappy wiring in your place (no offense intended, mine is crap here too).

[Joseph]

Thanks guys. This was incredibly helpful.

-Joseph