Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards CP5 mic input sounds phased - Any ideas?

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this or not but the microphone input on the CP5 sounds as though there is some form of signal processing applied even when the signal is directed straight thru. I have tried everything to make the weirdness go away but to no avail. It sounds very similar to two mics that are in close proximity to one another and are experiencing issues with phase cancellation. I am running a Studio Projects C1 mic (requires phantom power) into the CP5 either through a mic preamp or a small Berringer mixer and either way the weirdness remains. The phased sound is not evident in the mixer alone but only when monitored through the CP5. I even tried an SM58 dynamic that doesn't require phantom power and the same is true.

Any idea what could be going on? Is it possible that the CP5 has some issue that I am experiencing? How would I find out?

I didn't notice that. No "phasey sound" here. I'm using the CP5 regularly with a Shure Beta 58 directly into the CP5, it sounds wonderful. Maybe it's your C1? Strange, with the SM58 it sounds the same?

I've used the mic input on jobs and it sounded just fine. (I'm using a Shure SM58.)

You do know that you can edit any parameter of the mic setting you can think of within the CP5, don't you? Have you looked at the settings? Have you reset the keyboard (after saving your Performances)?

Have you tried the mic on other systems to rule out the settings on the CP5?

Does the CP5 actually support phantom powered mics? I just now searched the Owner's Manual (pdf doc) using the word phantom and there were no search results.

He's actually saying he's running the C1 through a preamp and / or mixer, so I guess the mic is powered from these devices.

I noticed on my CP5 the Default mic setting had a fair amount of Reverb added, too much for my taste. The number of parameters that the user can adjust for the mic is amazing. I've even thought of selling my Symetrix compressor\limiter since the keyboard can do that and more.

I've noticed this phasiness also when adding a layered voice onto an existing preset.
On most parts (Left1, Left 2, Right 1, Right 2) the MOD/FX block is by default active. So this is maybe also the case with the Mic part. Be sure to turn off the Pre-amp and Mod block on the mic part to rule this out.

If you press and hold the MIC INPUT button for a second or so, you enter the edit mode. Press the 2 \E.PIANO botton, press the big middle button\wheel [PUSH] and the first window is MicInsType > THRU. If that doesn't appear, scroll through until THRU does appear. Now the mic should bypass all the effects of the CP5. (This is all easier to do than than it might seem.)

(I'm doing this now without a mic connected, I'm just looking at a screen.)

Sadly I have tried all these things - went through every configuration the machine has:( The mic is completely clean. No additional effects whatsoever. Through the external mixer alone the C1 mic sounds fine and even an SM58. Plug the headphones into the piano and there is something different going on. I am using a pair of fairly high quality Sennheiser headphones and am noticing slightly different signals back and forth through each channel. I am being picky here but it almost sounds like they have added some extra enhancing circuit or something.

Try setting the mic to completely dry with nothing else added - no eq, no reverb, no compression, no master compression, no master eq and turn all the piano voices off too. With headphones plugged directly into the CP5 and about 1 foot away from the mic as not to get too much presence effect talk in a consistent tone. On my machine I notice the effect then. At first I thought it might have been the mic picking up the sound from the headphones but ruled that out when I still heard it with the volume fairly low. This is baffling me.

I am being picky here but it almost sounds like they have added some extra enhancing circuit or something.

The default global setting for the CP5 has the Master Compressor on.

Yeah - I know about the master compressor too - but I did turn it off

I would be interested if someone else could be really picky and see if they can hear it too with all effects on the piano turned off etc. A live situation would definitely be too noisy to hear what I am on about. I would imagine that having any type of speaker other than headphones would make it pretty hard to notice as you need good isolation from your own voice too.

Well, to be honest, if I can't hear it, then it doesn't matter to me, I don't try desperately to hear it. And BTW, I don't think the mic input feature on the CP5 was intended to be a high-end recording interface. I think it's just an ok and nice thing to have in a live situation, when you don't need a mixer etc. ...

You could run a signal from your mixer (using its XLR outputs) to the CP5 mic input and hear if non voice audio sounds phased, right? You don't have to use the mic input just for a mic.

True - I can try that.

I should close the loop on this thread. I soldered up a new XLR cable last night and poof - things now sound great. The weird phasing sound has completely disappeared. I can't explain what the original problem was now but using XLR cables through and through solved it. One thing I noticed was that the noise floor dropped significantly with this fix. So there must have been something weird going on somewhere. I was running a 1/4 inch out of the mic preamp before but it was supposed to be the same signal and level. I don't know - anyway problem solved - CP5 mic input works great with XLR for sure.

Cool! That was the easiest solution, I guess :-)

I was running a 1/4 inch out of the mic preamp before but it was supposed to be the same signal and level. I don't know - anyway problem solved - CP5 mic input works great with XLR for sure.


It would have been great if you had mentioned the 1/4" cable to begin with.