Customer Reviews

USB Teach Me Piano Kit

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I wanted a usb midi cable, since my new machine doesn't have a game port and I had been using a gameport midi cable to connect my sythesizer to my computer. This piano kit seemed to fit the bill. And, I liked that for about the cost of a cable I get the piano instruction software for my son basically included.

Before buying, I verified with Voyetra that this cable works both with mac and pc, since I have a PC desktop and Mac laptop. I didn't want a PC only cable. (Mac OSX has built-in compatible USB drivers for this Turtle Beach brand cable.)

Unfortunately, I spent over half a day trying combinations of connecting the cable between 2 different synths and my two computers... I get either computers to send data to control either synth, but got flaky MIDI IN data coming into the computers from every combination. It would send either random data or only "note off" commands but not "note on".

Eventually I gave up, suspecting the cable rather than my synths, computers, or application software. So I emailed voyetra tech support (they have no phone support), who replied on the next business day suggesting I download and install the firmware upgrade from their website. The upgrade worked easily, and now everything works great. (Note that the firmware upgrade needs to be run on a PC not a Mac.)

The included piano instruction software is good, and my son enjoys it, but it uses a lower screen resolution, leading me to believe that it was not written recently. But it has no problem running under XP.

Overall it's a nice product for the money, but the install was frustrating. You might need to know a bit about your synth, MIDI, and how to troubleshoot -- unless you get lucky.

Using the software and hardware included in this package I was able to connect my Yamaha keyboard to my computer, and use the software to begin to learn to play the piano.

Teach Me Piano is an older software program (and it shows) that competently teaches piano playing. There are videos to show proper hand positions, exercises to teach you to play, and evaluations of your performance. While this is an older program, it works well on my more modern laptop and is quite good.

One note, the cabling works as all standard MIDI cabling does; you plug the "out" cable into the "in" on the piano, and vice versa. If you plug the "out" into the "out" it won't work. I've heard people whine about this in reviews, but this has been part of the MIDI standard for decades and is just the way that it works.

Despite its age, I was willing to give "Teach Me" a shot. I worked dutifully through a few dozen lessons, but then as soon as multiple notes had to be played simultaneously, the software was unable to detect two notes at a time. I have the latest sound drivers and everything. Tech support was useless too.

The software is from windows 98 time. Error boxes that come up are from windows 98. I would download midi songs from the net and the program would give me an error.
It claims that you can add your own songs to learn, but it doesn't get nearly as involved as songs that it comes with. It was only worth it for the cable that it comes with. I am looking for other software to try and learn piano.

My friend has both emedia and teach me piano. The former is more like a traditional classroom teaching. The latter involves practice from the very beginning. Before you finishing first chaptor, you are able to play a real song. Very rewarding. I am going to buy my own teach me piano.

I was quite disappointed with this software. The MIDI USB adaptor was fine, but the piano tutoral was very primitive with low res. graphics and it doesn't even support long filenames!! It looks like it was designed for Windows 95 and hasn't been updated since.

I'm suprised they still market this. If I didn't need the MIDI adaptor for other things, I would have returned the whole package.

I was looking for a USB-to-MIDI cable to hook up my Yamaha keyboard to my computer, and came across this. As this kit of the USB cable and piano-teaching software only cost a few dollars more than just buying the USB-to-MIDI cable, I bought this instead. FYI, I'm an adult who's just learning how to play piano for the first time.

The USB-to-MIDI cable works great. It's a Turtle-Beach brand cable that's about 10ft. long. I was able to install the driver software and start using the cable right away. It's great to be able to play the MIDI files I've downloaded and have them sound fantastic through the Yamaha keyboard. I've even managed to download a freeware sequencer software and record my first "song" (a one-handed rendition of Oh! Susanna).

The teaching software is good, but as others have noted, is dated and it shows. It runs without any problems (so far) on my Windows XP laptop. The program runs fullscreen at 800x600 resolution--so if you have a 20+ inch flat panel running at 1600x1200 desktop resolution, your eyes will suffer and your sense of aesthetics will be highly offended! As far as I can tell, there's no option to run the program in a window.

Once I got past the initial "yikes" factor (of the screen resolution and display), I am finding that I am learning far more with this software's combination of onscreen tutorials, video clips (of someone actually playing the piano) and audio instructions, and keyboard-to-computer interface and its immediate feedback, than I have been with a couple of teach-yourself-piano type books. This software isn't too big on theory or preparation (finger exercises, etc.), but is good for getting you actually start learning with the keyboard.

There's another program included called "Songbook," which comes with 75 songs that you can learn to play; you can watch the program play it with proper timing, and then try to play it yourself, either by reading the music properly or by cheating and reading the numbers above the treble staff (for example, "1" is the middle C chord, "2" is D, etc.). There's also a rudimentary grading built into the lessons and the Songbook.

You're supposed to be able to download MIDIs from the internet and import them into the Songbook and learn to play them, but so far I have not been able to do so (unexpected program error blah blah blah). I've only tried a couple, and will try others and update the review later on this aspect of the software.

I'd give the USB-to-MIDI cable 5 stars in a heartbeat, and the sofware probably 4 stars. I'll round up and give the whole package 5 stars. For an extra few dollars beyond buying just the USB-to-MIDI cable, this is a good value and choice for those just starting out on learning to play piano.

This review is about the USB Midi connector that it comes with. At first it didn't work with my Yamama PSR-350 keyboard. Signals from the keyboard were not received by the computer. But I downloaded a firmware upgrade from the Turtle Beach website, and then everything worked fine. I haven't tried the software yet.

It's a pity the product is not compatible with Vista - therefore useless unless you have an old pc.

The USB adapter worked perfectly right out of the box. I didn't have to worry with any driver or firmware installations as other people seem to have had to do. I agree with the running observation that the software is dated. But that is not really a critique. It does what it is supposed to do very well. It's too advanced for my 5yr old to use on her own but I've enjoyed revisiting the piano with it.

I did take lessons as a child for a few years but never got far. I understand music notation already so I may not be the best judge but it seems to be straight forward and easy to understand. I love the fact that you can chose weather to just slide through the lessons or do it over until it's perfect. At least you don't have to worry about getting too board before the software will allow you to continue, and for perfectionists you can easily work on it until you get it right!

One great feature, it comes with a midi recording station to record your own performances to directly to midi. Good design over all and for less than the cable itself would have cost at the local store, a really great deal!