Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Can anyone tell me the best way to record my digital piano?

Hello, I hope this is the right place to post this question. I've been trying to make videos of myself playing piano lately. At first I was just using the mic that is built into the camera, but that resulted in lots of distortion.

The next thing I did was I went out and bought a condenser mic and an "Alesis IO Dock" for my iPad (this is essentially the same thing as an MBox or something, which simply allows me to plug either a 1/4" or XLR input into my iPad.

I then transfer the sound recording over to my desktop computer and mix the video and audio together using a video editing software (Sony movie studio to be exact).

Now, the condenser mic sounds better then the crappy built-in camera mic. However, it still doesn't sound as great as what I hear when I am in the room with my digital piano. Like, it just doesn't have that beautiful ambiance sound (or whatever it's called) that a piano produces.

I have 2 digital pianos, and I'm sure that there's a way to go direct out with both of them (as opposed to using a microphone). However, I tried that with my one piano (using 2 quarter inch outs going into the 2 quarter inch ins into my Alesis IO dock for my iPad)....and that only resulted in the worst garbage, crackly sound ever that didn't even resemble a piano at all!!! I'm thinking maybe I was using an incorrect cable or something???

I'm not looking to spend TONS of money. However, if I have to go out and buy some proper equipment, that is understandable. I just want to figure out how I'd get great recording quality.

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

You should indicate your DP model. On many, there is an AUX-OUT plug intended to bring the piano signal to a device which could record it (a personal computer for example).
If there is no AUX-OUT, you can use the phone jack. (It will shut the speaker off, but if you replay a recorded song or use a second headphone)

Hey thanks for the reply!

I have 2 digital pianos....one is a Privia and the other is an "upright" Yamaha. Both have jacks in the back, however when I tried plugging my Yamaha direct into the iPad using 1/4" jacks it sounded like nothing but just crackle and mush...no recognizable piano sound. I haven't tried direct out on the Privia yet though.

So essentially I can return the condenser mic though?

I haven't use an iPad as a recorder. But with my DP, I have a cable with two 1/4" jacks at the side of the DP, one 1/8" jack at the side of my computer (a desktop), and it works fine with audacity (a freeware).
Some Privia have no AUX-OUT: we have to use the headphone plug (with a single stereo cable), some have AUX-OUT, and we should its two plugs with a double mono cable.

Which Privia is it ? The 350 has the record to USB drive feature I believe in the form of a WAV file, that would be one way and the quality is quite good 16 bit 44.1 KHz, but no noise of crackles, very clean, it just sounds the same as you would have played it through headphones when you listen to the wav afterwards on a PC with headphones, so all you need is a USB stick/drive if you have that feature on the piano, no microphones, cables etc.

Record, then Simply transfer it to a PC/Mac. If you want to add some reverb/ambience effects most DAW software can do that for you. If need be buy a plugin for it, not that costly and even some free ones around I tried that can give decent results.

When I used it on the 450 it worked well, even if I don't like using it myself much with the extra steps, transfer etc, but it certainly is very functional and one way of doing it.

Hey thanks everyone!

So the exact models that I have are:

Privia PX-150

Yamaha Clavinova CS-611

I think that the "line out" jacks are broken on my Yamaha....because I can't get anything out of them when I go direct in with them....not even piano sounds....just hiss and crackle.

And there are only 2 output jacks one the Privia, which I guess can be either used for headphones or a 1/4" out....they at least allow me to record, but they clip VERY EASILY despite how low I have the input signal set to.

I don't want to go direct into my desktop, because the main reason that I bought the iPad docking station was so that I could sit it right on my music stand right in front of my piano....this eliminates the need for long wires going all the way from the mic to the computer.

Therefore my options of INPUT to the iPad are 1/4" jacks and/or XLR jacks.

I found out that the speakers for the Yamaha are underneath the piano, and I've been placing the condenser mic ABOVE the piano this whole time. Maybe I need the condenser mic to go right up against the speaker underneath then? I've never used a condenser mic before, so I don't know how touchy they are as far as mic placement goes. Anyway, if it does need to go right up against the speaker, I'd have to go out and buy a smaller mic stand.

Ugh...I didn't think this would be so complicated!!

I think you should do this:

Casio PX-150 headphone output 1 to a "stereo splitter" cable ---> Alesis IO Dock line-level inputs;

Alesis IO dock (via USB, or something else) --> Mac, running whatever recording software you want;

Casio PX-150 headphone out 2 --> you own monitoring headphones.

You may have to turn the PX-150 volume down, or set the Alesis input gain really low.

Return the mic -- it'll just cause more trouble, and give worse results.

. Charles

PS -- I'm assuming the Alesis IO Dock has two "line-level" inputs, for channel 1 (right) and channel 2 (left). Or one stereo input, in which case you won't need a "stereo splitter" cable.

Charles thank you!! I can't wait to try this out the way you are describing. Thanks you for explaining this to me!

Brian, I can recommend you to watch this video. I hope it will help. At least, to understand that using microphones to record digital piano is the worst idea.

If you don't want to use computer, then I can recommend to watch this video, just to get general idea. Look at this video, watch what this guy uses to record digital piano. Very convenient, autonomously and mobile.

I can also recommend you to read this.

I always knew this is not easy, especially for beginners, that's why I never accept any digital piano if it doesn't have fantastic built-in feature called USB Audio Recorder.

If I read this correctly, you try to record your piano playing using your iPad camera and a condenser mic for taking up the piano sound?

That's complicated, because those devices weren't built for this purpose. Once you got the right equipment, it's dead easy.

You put a camcorder with a LINE input connector on a tripod, then you connect a simple cable from the LINE output of your piano to the camcorder's LINE input (switch off the builtin microphone). Press Record and start playing piano. Done.

This is a somewhat different question but related. My son and I are using Skype for him to teach me. I recently bought a Yeti Blue microphone to improve the sound but I still am not satisfied.

As is typical, the lesson goes like this: I play for him, he comments and might show me something on his piano, I ask questions or answer his questions, then I play on the piano again. I never talk and play at the same time but I need to instantly go back and forth between talking and playing piano.

I am thinking that taking the sound from the output jack(s) of my Kawai CN-34 into a mixer and then into my laptop would work. But I am not sure which mixer to buy (a Behringer Q802USB 8-Channel Mixer is high on my Amazon wish list but I don't know if it will do what I need). I understand that the mono only capability of Skype is an issue.

Any thoughts? If I get the right equipment, it will sound better than the Yeti blue, right?

Get a 2-channel USB audio interface, connect the microphone to INPUT 1 and the CN34's LINE OUT L/MONO to INPUT 2 (instead of connecting the PIANO to both inputs). Set the audio interface as recording device in Skype.

This way you get a MONO piano mixed with your MIC. Should be sufficient for Skype.

Thank you. I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 but I have been unable to get it to work with my mike, a Shure SM58. When I tried, my voice was severely distorted in Skype.

Because of your suggestion, I searched the Internet to find the reason for the distortion. It was suggested that I change some computer settings to get better performance and now I can do voice with Skype. I don't have a cable to connect the Focusrite and the Kawai but I just ordered a 10 foot TRS cable from Amazon (I hope that TRS was the right way to go -- the Kawai manual shows a 1/4 inch cable but doesn't mention TRS).

PMFJI --

Two notes:

1. The setup (mic and DP into the interface, and Skype pointed to the interface "virtual sound card" as an audio source) should work fine --

. . . _if_ the interface lets you mix both input channels
. . . into a single _monophonic_ "virtual sound card"
. . . for Skype.

I don't know if it does, or not -- refer to the manual for the interface.

A Behringer 802USB will certainly work, just as jtsn says. It's a great jack-of-all-trades. It _will_ mix two mono signals into a single channel for Skype, no question.

2. If you have distortion from an SM58 (which is a tough, very forgiving microphone), it's almost certainly because you're overdriving _something_ in the signal chain.

Either the MIC GAIN is set too high on the interface, or the MIC GAIN is set too high in Skype. To adjust MIC GAIN in Skype:

Tools --> Options --> Audio Settings --> "Volume" slider.

You can also check the "Automatically adjust microphone settings", which will do the job for you (for voice).

. . . Note that "Automatically adjust . . . " may make "pp"
. . . piano passages as loud as "ff" passages.

I haven't tried running a piano through Skype. It'll be better than a cell phone, but Skype was designed for voice communications, not music. Since some teachers teach over Skype, it should be good enough.

. Charles

Hi Charles, I am not as high tech as some of the helpful people on this forum, however one very simple way to record your digital piano would be to use a 6.5mm stereo male to 3.5mm female adapter (headphone adapter) and run from your keyboard's stereo headphone socket via a 3.5mm male lead to the 3.5mm stereo mic input of your computer/laptop, and record on a free and easy to use program such as Audacity. In Audacity you set the recording source..i.e. mic input and can check the recording levels, and then it is easy from thereon. You can trim up your recordings and even add fade outs etc, and if you want to add another instrument to the recording you simply press record at the start of the song, and another stereo track appears. When finished, you can export the recording as a .wav file, and if you have downloaded the LAME mp3 codec, you can also choose to export as a mp3 file (great for emailing). Happy recording.

That works fine, _if_ your laptop has a stereo mic input. In that case, you'll see two mic input channels (left and right) in Audacity, not one.

If you don't have a stereo mic input, you'll be recording just one channel (probably the right channel, I think) of the DP's output.

A typical "computer mic" has a three-contact plug:

. . . Mic + (tip)

. . . Bias (ring)

. . . Ground (sleeve)

So a 1/8" stereo cable will fit into the jack, but only the "tip" will be used by the soundcard.

As for Audacity, I use it, and like it.

. Charles