Simonb
Iām a life-long computer geek, so I canāt help myself. š
All this tech wonāt make for a good recital submission. That requires another type of effort!
DAW - digital audio workbench (Garageband, Abeltron, Logic Pro, etc.) If you have any of the virtual pianos on the market, they typically come with their own stand-alone DAW where you choose the instrument preset you want and from there make your own tweaks. I will likely use the stand-alone DAW and a lightly modified preset (velocity curve for my instrument, output volume, reverb)
Apogee Duet - a digital audio interface (others are Focusrite, Audient) These allow you to capture other instruments sound (guitars, voiceā¦ into your DAW for mixing the inputs and set levels and lets you monitor the output over headphones or speakers.) It also makes for better output and volume control to speakers and headphones than just plugging into the headphone outlet on the Mac.
The only reason to mess with AudioMIDI configuration tool and software like Blackhole is if you want to merge a 2nd computer based sound file or source (your DAW or virtual pianoās stand alone DAW) with your microphone input to apps like Quicktime, Facetime, Zoom, Teamsā¦ In my case, I need Blackhole/AudioMIDI to make the DAW audio output into an āinputā for Quicktime.
Itās been interesting reading people talk about their experiences here. With any luck, in a few more months Iāll have recovered/upgraded my piano skills enough I can approach one of my orchestra mandolin buddies and see if they want to try Beethovenās mandolin/piano duets!
Dotty
Amateur keyboard player and mandolin family player
