Trying to get an old Yamaha keyboard to control MIDI in Producer X1

Hi guys, my first post on here for many a year, I have been away from making music for a long time.
 
My problem is this, and I really hope someone can help me as this is driving me nuts.
 
I know this works as I did it before, I made a full album using MIDI on Producer 8, trouble is, I had a serious accident which as affected my memory as well as my concentration levels, ok here comes the question.
 
I have a Yamaha PSR 6700 which is only good for using as a MIDI controller, everything worked fine until my old Vista computer died, I was using Producer 8 and I am sorry to lose it, I long since lost the disk and documentation, so it's gone.
 
Not having a great deal of available cash, I bought replacement computer and was lucky enough to find my local music store had a copy of Sonar X1 Production Suite at a bargain price, I took a risk on the software, it may not have worked, but hey, it works perfectly, and has everything on it that I will ever need.
 
I had to do a lot of research to get everything running as the new computer is 64 bit, but everything is working fine.
 
I just don't know how to get the programme to recognise the Yamaha, I am using a Tascam US-144 Sound card, I managed to find a 64 bit patch on the Tascam site.
 
Everything is working great, I just need to get the Yamaha onto the Midi devices list.
 
Grateful for any help that you can give, if all else fails I guess I could buy one of those midi controller keyboards if needs be.
 
Regards
 
Trevor

if you don't get yourself a midisport uno midi interface it's dirt cheap and it works...

litmusic
 
I have a Yamaha PSR 6700 which is only good for using as a MIDI controller,

What you need is a way to send MIDI signals from the Yamaha keyboards to the PC. The way I would do this is grab yourself a
USB to MIDI converter. The one I use is the Roland UM-ONE mk2 USB MIDI Interface which I bought locally for $AU57.00.  You, however, should be able to find one on eBay.  You can download the drivers from Roland's Website. http://www.roland.com/products/um-one_mk2/   I personally have found this unit to be quite reliable.
 

Too many unknowns. What is the O/S and basic specs? X1 was a bit problematic and had a few updates. You should be sure that you have the final version of X1.
 
I have no idea what the specs are on the keyboards, but make sure they are set to communicate via midi. This should be an easy solve once all the required information is known.

Welcome back.
If the Yamaha is plugged into the TASCAM with MIDI cables, you need to select the US-144 as both your MIDI input and output device, click P on the computer keyboard to bring up  Preferences, and choose the TASCAM under MIDI>Devices.
In a MIDI track, select the input to the US-144, choose a channel and patch. I use MIDI Omni for input from my old Yamaha PSR-GX 76.
If you use General MIDI patches, the Yamaha will play them, but if you want to use a particular patch on the keyboard that isn't GM, you'll need to set the patch on the keyboard to hear that sound. Or, try to find the Instrument Definition for the 6700. Then you can choose all the keyboard's patches from within SONAR.
You should be able to use software synthesizers, too, if you want some different and/or more realistic sounds than the PSR makes.
Just Insert>Soft Synths, select the synth you want and set the MIDI track's output to that soft synth instead of the Yamaha. Click the track's Input Echo button to hear the soft synth.
It's a little more involved than that, but those are the basics to playing any soft synth in SONAR.

The type of keyboard should be irrelevant, assuming the MIDI connection is over 5-pin DIN rather than USB. The problem is most likely with the interface driver. As a discontinued model, it's unlikely there will be a Win 10 driver for the US-144.
 
Fortunately, there are several inexpensive alternatives. The least-expensive solution, as suggested above, would be picking up a dedicated MIDI interface. Both Roland and M-Audio offer one-port MIDI interfaces for $39. That's assuming the audio portion of the Tascam is performing OK, of course.
 

As noted above, you can get a very cheap MIDI interface for your computer. A 2x2 should cost very little.
 
Once you have the interface set up, you need to go into Preferences to make sure it's recognized/listed there.
 
When you want to send MIDI to a Track, go into Track Inspector and ensure your interface is selected as the INPUT.  It should say something like "MIDISPORT 2x2 IN A" depending on the name of your interface and which port on it you are using.  It could have just one port, two, four, eight, or whatever.  In that same place, you can click on that selection to pick the MIDI Channel.
 
Just a note, you can get a very small keyboard from Akai or other makers that will have a USB interface and it will basically just be plug-and-play.  Of course, these inexpensive ones have short keyboards, but that may work for you.