Korg Forums

[boileroo]

hey there guys

ive wanted to get a MK for ages and finally can afford one!

just a couple of what are probably rubbish questions for you!

firstly, i want to be able to hook the MK up to my computer, along with an electric guitar. can anyone recommend a sound card (or other means) for this?

and secondly, will the MK need a set of speakers to run off or can it a) run through computer speakers, b) through guitar amp, or c) through computer then speakers.

also, how easy would it be to integrate an emx in there at some point as well?

thanks!

[X-Trade]

you most definately don't want to run it through a guitar amp. guitar amps and bass amps most typically use distortion.. Synths are better off through monitors/pa/headphones.
Using a set of PC speakers or better would be your best bet (or look at 'monitors' from pro audio gear retailers).

as regards to using a PC, some soundcards have MIDI if they have a 12 pin joystick socket, this would not get you any sounds in as MIDI takes and recieves note data (e.g. "note A4 on, Note A4 Off...etc"), good for recording performance, editing out mistakes, and then sending it back out so you can record the audio, or for controlling softsynths on the PC.

if you have a soundcard with line-in (NOT the microphone socket), you can plug it in there and set the level using the windows mixer for the 'line in', then you should be able to have it easilly route back through your PC speakers. but you will need a stereo jack>mini jack splitter, or have a stereo line with a jack>mini jack converter for the headphones socket.

In a more professional setup, you should really get a small mixer of some kind and an external USB or firewire audio interface.
IF you're not after insane quality, Behringer's xenyx series is good and some come with a USB interface which I used for a while. not perfect, but pretty useful nonetheless. you can get a tiny mixer like that and run the tape outs to your soundcard too. The point of a mixer is to merge sound signals so for example you have your guitar, your keyboard, your microphone... all going to one set of stereo outs.
in such a situation you would also probably run your speakers off the mixer and have audio from the computer soundcard going into the mixer too.