Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Question About Using Headphones with a Digital Piano

I prefer using headphones with my digital keyboard (I hesitate to call it a piano because it doesn't have the full 88 keys...). I would like to be able to play along with separate music files, (whether they are MP3's, CD's etc) playing on my laptop computer, or even my iPod. But that would require another set of headphones for that source, and I only have two ears.

Is there a way to set up either the headphones or the digital keyboard to send both sets of signals (piano and MP3's/CD's) to a single set of headphones?

Thanks!

Some digital pianos allow MP3 files to be played back directly from USB, or to connect your MP3 player etc. directly to the instrument's amplifier.

However if you piano does not support this functionality, you may wish to purchase a small mixer to combine two or more audio sources.

Kind regards,
James
x

What piano do you have?

Does the piano have a line output (or aux output)?
Does your computer have a line output?

You can buy a small mixer.
You would feed the outputs from the piano to one of the mixer inputs.
And feed the outputs from the computer to another of the mixer inputs.
You can adjust the level of both signals independently.

Some mixers allow you to plug in headphones.
If the mixer lacks that, then its line output can drive an amplifier into which you can plug in your headphones.

You could use a fancy mixer like this: Mackie mixer for $100. It has a headphone jack.

I found a mixer on ebay. Brand new this Shure SCM-262 costs $249. But I got it used for just $35. This one does not have a headphone connection, but I feed it to an amplifier (with speakers) and the amp has a headphone jack.

The nexus of my tiny practice "system" is a Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer.

Two mic inputs (with phantom power), several line-level inputs, and "Main Out", "Tape Out", and headphone outputs.

They cost about $60 (plus the cost of connecting cables, unless you want to solder your own).

What you want to do is easy with that hardware, and I do it.

. charles