I always hear people saying that the Mac Pro is the Mac of choice for musicians but, as a hobbyist, I simply can't justify the expense. I'm tempted by a Mac Mini, as I already have a decent screen, but am concerned that it won't be able to cope with the requirements of audio recording.

MIDI or Audio Recording? First, let’s get a common confusion out of the way. Many people get confused about the difference between making a MIDI connection from their keyboard and actually recording the live sound of it (audio recording). If you want to record the sound of your keyboard, then a MIDI connection will not do the job. A MIDI interface will only transmit your performance data (i.e. which notes you have played, how loudly you played them etc). This MIDI information can be used to play software instruments on your computer. But it is not a recording of the sound!

Wanna do both? If your keyboard already has the USB-MIDI connection then you can already record MIDI. So all you need is an interface to record the sound. If your keyboard does not have USB MIDI, but has standard MIDI ports, then choose an interface with MIDI and Audio (see the iRig Pro Duo or the Audiobox iTwo above). That way you can do MIDI AND Audio.

Your USB To Host Will NOT Record The Sound! And one more thing. If you can connect your piano or keyboard to your computer via a USB lead then in most cases this will only by a MIDI connection. To record the sound you will need to follow our steps below.

Still confused about the difference between MIDI and Audio recording? Here is a short video that hopefully shows you the difference! If after that you realise you want to make a MIDI recording then read our other post on from your piano or keyboard. Or if you are still raring to go, then here is our simple step-by-step method to how your record your live performance! And if you are itching to know more about MIDI then will help.

How To Record Your Keyboard Or Digital Piano Here’s how to record the audio signal from your keyboard/piano in a nutshell. You connect the line output signal from your keyboard or piano to a suitable audio interface.

Then connect the interface to your laptop, computer, iPad, smartphone or iPhone. Finally listen to the results using headphones or studio monitors. Let’s go through the step-by-step process of getting it right.

Step 1: Check Where The Sound Is Coming FROM Your digital piano, electronic keyboard or synthesizer may have speakers. But to record you need to find the line level output(s). Check the manual/instruction booklet, or look online for the connectivity of your keyboard model. It may have something labelled ‘Aux Out’ or ‘Line Out’. This information will appear in the ‘Specs’ section. It might be labelled [L/L+R][R], or (MAIN) L/MONO, R: 1/4″ TRS Balanced. Or, as is often the case with less expensive keyboards, it may be that the only output is actually a headphone output.

How to import image from virtual machine to docker for mac. I am trying Docker for Mac beta now. I have another MAC build machine which has Xcode installed and we use it to compile our iOS app. Ideally we would like to use Docker in our MAC build machine so that we can transfer MAC build machine image to another machine if needed.