keyboard midi cables and preamps

Hi. I'm new to all of this so please keep that in mind!

I have a yamaha DGX-300 keyboard with midi capabilities. I just got my mbox2 pro tools and really hope that I can use my keyboard with this since my funds are a little short and I can't currently get anything new right now. I also have an O8 (in a different state at the moment, but I have it)... Anyway, my question is- what sort of midi cables should I be looking for to connect my keyboard (or O8 if I ever get it or it that would even work) to my mbox interface? I have a firewire midi cable, but that's obviously not going to help me in this situation. Are there any inexpensive, but still decent cables that you would recommend?

While you're reading this- what can you tell a beginner about preamps? For some reason, I have a huge block about them right now. OR if you don't want to go into it- is there a website or book that has some good information on preamps?

[dagosto]

Welcome to the GW forums.

The Mbox has MIDI ports on it. They are the circular plugs with five pin inputs arched on the top. Those same plugs should be on the keyboard as well. Do a search for "MIDI cable" on any music store website.

There might be a "thru" port but you don't need to worry about that for now. Just worry about the "IN" and "Out" ports.

So plug the MIDI Out of the keyboard into the MIDI In of the Mbox. This will be enough to record MIDI into protools. If you want the MIDI to also trigger sounds that are on the keyboard you will also have to plug the MIDI Out of the Mbox into the MIDI In of the keyboard.

Since you are just beginning you should know that if you are having protools send MIDI out to the keyboard you will have to take the audio back out of the keyboard into the Mbox audio inputs to get the audio into your computer. MIDI isn't audio, it just triggers audio.

Hope this helps.