MIDI Confusion

Ok so I bought a keyboard to mess around with today for 10 bucks until I get the mm6. Its a yamaha PSR 41 and the only plugins are MIDI. Can I record music and save it as an mp3 using the midi cable or a certain one? I usually use audacity. Also with the yamaha mm6 would i be able to record music as mp3? Would adacity work with that one too?

MIDI = musical instrument digital interface. Any keyboard with midi in/out will send at least midi on/off messages to a sequencer that will save it as a midi file. It can then be edited into more or other sounds. If you have a decent soundcard and the right sequencer you may be able to convert a midi file into an mp3 with little difficulty. Otherwise you might have to find a midi-to-mp3 conversion program; there are a few freebies out there if you look around. You could also play the midi file thru your soundcard and record it as a wav or mp3. It works the same for all midi instruments. the only differences might be polyphony, voices, velocity touch, etc.

Does the PSR41 have a headphone out? You might be able to get a useable signal thru that and go thru your Audacity.

[This message has been edited by cassp (edited 07-14-2007).]

It has a headphone area but what do I plug in there?

If the PSR41 is the one for which this link points to the manual: http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/emi/english/port/PSR41E.PDF

then there are two "Aux Out" sockets at the back of your keyboard. I can't tell whether these are 1/4 inch (6.5mm) jack sockets or phono sockets; either way you should be able to get a cable to take these connectors at one end and convert to a stereo 3.5mm jack at the other; you can plug the 3.5mm jack into the "Line in" of your computer and then record that to a wave file using Audacity (although you may have to fiddle with the PC mixer to get "Line In" to be routed to the Record channel of the sound card first).