MIDI setups: Little Phatty with Alesis Nanosynth

[Jaguarfooger]

I'm looking for advice/anecdotes about how I might get more use out of the following gear in terms of composing and recording songs....I have:
-Little Phatty Stage II
-Alesis Nanosynth (from 1998!)

I don't have any MIDI software or other hardware that I might plug this gear into....My computer runs on Windows XP

The nanosynth has only 5-pin DIN plugs...no USB connections. But there are some really great sampled sounds in the nanosynth--that sound especially cool (Mellotronish to my ears) when run through the Phatty's overdriven filter.

I know how to "play" the nanosynth with the MIDI output signal. But what I'm not sure about how to do is to create MIDI files on my computer that I can playback on either the Little Phatty or the nanosynth. So my specific questions:

--How can I connect the Nanosynth to my computer....Do I need adapters to connect a device with DIN plugs to a USB cable? Or can I get MIDI data from my computer to the Nanosynth through the Phatty (i.e., a USB to MIDI connection from the computer to the Phatty and a MIDI to MIDI connection from the Phatty to the Nanosynth)?

--What software (freeware?) do I need to compose MIDI files and play them on the Little Phatty/Nanosynth? Follow up question: is it possible to send MIDI information to both instruments at once? For example, can I send MIDI notes to the Nanosynth to play drum sounds and MIDI notes to process those sounds through the Little Phatty's filter at the same time?

If any of you have had first hand experience in interfacing the Little Phatty and the Alesis Nanosynth, I'd especially appreciate your insights.

Thanks!

[Jaguarfooger]

To put it simply, I'm looking for recommendations about freeware DAW software so I can connect my Little Phatty to my computer and compose and play MIDI files.

[bigcatrik]

Reaper?

http://www.reaper.fm/

And lots of experimentation. It's shareware. I don't use it since I need notation (the one thing it seems to lack).

I use this USB-to-MIDI on Vista (and it works on my ancient WinME laptop as well). I really like that the plugs say "Connect to MIDI In" and "Connect to MIDI Out" instead of just "MIDI In" and "Midi Out." One less thing to worry about.

http://www.roland.com/products/en/UM-1EX/

Drums are usually on MIDI channel 10 and I'm 99% sure the Nanosynth follows General MIDI specs. I have one that I bought special wind controller patches for but the internal backup battery died so it won't keep custom patches but the presets still work.

Rik

[Jaguarfooger]

bigcatrik:

Thanks! I'll look into both of these!