Connecting to Keyboard

Hi all! we are new to this so all the help I can get is appreciated. we recently purchased music creator 3 and are trying to connect an external MIDI keyboard. We have a Yamaha UX16 MIDI interface cord and a Radio shack MD982 keyboard. All the drivers are installed and cords are connected properly but I cannot get the device to play any sound into the program for recording. When we connect and arm to record the keyboard is soundless and nothing shows on our track. There is a indicator light for MIDI input activity on the bottom of the screen that is supposed to be flashing red from what I have read in the tutorials but this is not showing as active. Any suggestions on what may be wrong.

LOL Just two of us....Guess that did sound funny huh? just trying to help out my BF who is not quite up on the computer thing yet but has all the musical talent a person can hold.
Anyway, Checked all of the above and all look correct so far. The tutorials all play and I can hear sound there. We are using MIDI not AUDIO. Also the inputs are correct. I only have the one keyboard and that shows up I also checked it in the devices in the computer and it is listed but still no indicator lights?????

Yep - that's a common mistake. dave's got a good point to check.

Hey you guys have something there. Definately had hte in and outs reversed....ok so I was having a blonde moment! lol We got the indicators to work now when we play in they are lighting up as they should. Now next question....I can hear the metronme playing through the keyboard but no sound is recording we can see where it looks like its going but when we play back no sound is there and it shows no hits recorded.

Also..can you use the keyboard to trigger the sounds from the program itself (like the different sounds in the patch) or is there another way you need to go about that?

first, you hear the met playing thru the keyboard, that means that you have your MIDI output set to your keyboard, so all MIDI that you play will be played thru the keyboard (unless you have more outputs and set them correctly).

for your problems, however, I don't know what kind of sound card you have, what driver mode you're running in, or exactly what you're trying to accomplish with your recordings.

are you trying to record MIDI only, or are you trying to record the actual sounds of your specific keyboard? Since you have MC, you can only record the actual sounds of your specific keyboad by recording AUDIO, not MIDI (you can use a INS if you had SHS or above). If you're trying to record MIDI data, then you don't need to worry about the channels and patches except for the OUTPUT. For the output, you need to either use a soundblaster sound card's embedded soundfonts, or use a DXi Synth like the Edirol VSC.

go to INSERT>DXI SYNTH>EDIROL. then on your MIDI source track , change the channels, patches and banks to what you want to hear.

after you get that working, do the Tutorials that come with MC. They will help you with this and other questions!

P.S. - you make dinner for him, too?! I made dinner for my wife and 14 YO son today...and recorded vocals for two songs...and did the laundry...walked the dog...

Change the patches on the sound card?

Thats a good question I havent a clue what I am doing here, but dinner was great! lol Guess you cant always have it all.
So we do like the sounds on the sound card better. How do I make the changes so the sounds on the sound card are triggered from the keyboard and then play from the computer speakers as opposed to the keyboard speakers?

This is what I do...select the sound you want in MC (patch) play your keyboard recording as MIDI. Then play with the notes/tempo whatever, get it the way you want it, then play it back through the keyboard but have your audio out (like a headphone jack) from your keyboard connected to the audio in on your computer/interface/whatever and record that in a new Audio track in MC. Then mute the MIDI tracks or Archive them. You can do more than one MIDI track as a time if you have set up your channels so that you have each sound on a different channel (which you are supposed to do).