My keyboard has a mic port, but my nephew's doesn't! He's still a kid, so using his keyboard speakers should be enough for now. How can I connect a mic to a keyboard that doesn't have a mic port? He has a crappy Casio CTK-533 I think. The keyboard is enough for his musical abilities right now. I have both wireless and wired mics. ...any suggestions? It has me stumped
There's a MIDI port so you could theoretically do it with a suitably expensive MIDI interface box. Looking at its specs it doesn't come with a mic port so it probably won't take a mic. You'd need a proper mic preamp circuit, but then you'd need a line in which it doesn't have either... If you want to mix mic / keyboard then use an amp/speaker setup with a mic input and take a headphone out from the keyboard...?
if you have line in i would go from mic preamp -> line level in -> keyboard. save that crack open the damn thing and make merry with the soldering iron.
Unfortunately not, you can't put analogue audio (microphone) through a standard MIDI port, MIDI only transmits note and sequence data. As that keyboard doesn't have any kind of line in it's not going to be possible to use the keyboard's speakers with out breaking it open and splicing some wires like kingred said (I wouldn't recommend it though) Best bet is just to use a different set of speakers for the mic, you could also run both the keyboard's line out and the microphone through a mixer into a different set of speakers if you really wanted to have keyboard and vocals in the same speakers, seems a little unnecessary though.
Thanks guys! That was very helpful! Yeah, I didn't think you can mix vocals and midi... and I'm not touching any wires (I tried soldering the headphones.. and just ended up buying new ones ). So, if I am understanding you guys correctly, I am suggested to purchase an external amp or speakers and connect the mic to that, right? Btw, what does kingred mean by "mic preamp -> line level in -> keyboard" ? That includes soldering and crap, right?
For the MIDI I meant box to convert the analogue mic to the MIDI signal (££££ though!). Best bet is cheapy amp + speakers....could a guitar amp do it?
kingred's solution simply requires purchasing a mic pre-amp, which is a box used to boost the mic signal ready for the line in. You'd simply plug the mic into the pre-amp over XLR and then use a 1/4" jack to go from the pre-amp the line-in. Pre-amps can be had for very little (under £30) and will usually have a volume control on them too.
You sir, are not making sense. MIDI is NOT audio data and vocals cannot be 'converted' to MIDI. As someone already said above, MIDI is just note/sequence data - No audio, no pitch, no vocals. MIDI data is not the same as digital audio data, not even similar - It's a stream of instructions, not audio samples. The only way you could 'convert' vocals to MIDI is with something that tracks the vocal pitch and plays a note in MIDI to match, but that's neither here nor there and nothing to do with what the OP wants.
I think what he's saying is a custom encoder would convert audio into (what would appear to garbage) midi data, and then another custom decoder would do the opposite at the other end. of course this is still no use as the keyboard won't be able to decode it, so the vocals would come through as random midi data...maybe that's how aphex twin writes stuff
thanks for clarifying <A88>! but wouldn't you think that having the mic connecting to external speakers is less set up...well, one cable less? preamps do have a good price... but I'm not so sure about speakers. Does anyone know which option is more affordable? I wonder whether I could just use a 1/4 to 1/8 plug and use his pre-existing computer mic setup. Any thoughts about that?
Gathering from what u guys shared, here are my options so far: 1) mic connected to XLR cable to mic preamp and a 1/4 jack would take it back to the keyboard into the input in ...(it should have input in.. but knowing that keyboard, i would want to double check) 2)mic to 1/4 to 1/8 inch plug (i think i need a 1/8 in. plug... is that the same as an RCA?) connecting to computer mic input or stereo input 3) mic to speakers ... and that setup i still need to research can anyone explain the setup for mic to speakers and everything involved? i'm really liking the idea of using his existing awesome home stereo....
According to casio's site, the keyboard doesn't have any kind of audio input, so option 1 is a no go. RCA and 1/8 inch jacks aren't the same, but you can easily get hold of 1/4 inch to RCA converters (RCA is also known as phono) Computers microphone port is almost always 1/8 inch jack, so I'd imagine that would be your best bet. You can connect the microphone directly in to anything with a 'mic' input, if it's a 'line' input you'll need a pre-amp, other wise the microphone will be too quiet to hear. If he's got a good stereo I would have thought it would have a mic input, if not it will almost definitely have a line input, so you'll just need to buy a pre-amp, plug the microphone into the pre-amp, and plug the pre-amp into the stereo's line in. Hope that's cleared some things up.
Thanks Shuriken!!! Yeah, I checked his keyboard last night and it didn't have a line in.. just a line out. The computer method DID work, BUT it was only for recording sessions and not for just use as speakers. ? Is it possible to use it just for speakers.... like getting some software or something? For the stereo, I checked that too and yes, he does need a converter. But I hope a pre-amp is unneccesary since I have a mic with a volume control too... so that should even out the volume of the mic to let's say, the music. OR will the max volume not be loud enough and everything will just be very quiet? Is it possible to skip the entire preamp part? Thanks again for the helpful answers!
I think my own system needs an upgrade. I currently use my digital piano for mic playback, which is perfect if I am playing along to my singing... BUT not so cool when I just use the digital piano for a mic AND use a stereo to play a backing track. The thing is, I normally use headphones when singing, so it is very important to have the music and the mic come out of one pair of headphones---which is not the case when a stereo is used to play the music (music coming from stereo and vocals from digital piano; I usually use one headphone for the vocals and jam the stereo in my room--- but there has to be a way to get all the sound out of just headphones). What are my best options? Have it all come out of the stereo, or the digital piano, or connect it all up to some speakers or something??
