Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Can't record audio with USB.

I'm trying to record my Roland FP-30 to my pc on Audacity but the USB connection doesn't seem to want to do work. It won't show that the piano connected and i cant choose it from the list of audio devices.

Any ideas?

Audacity is not a MIDI sequencer so it will not recognise the signal from your midi over USB cable. Audacity is an audio recorder so you would need to connect an audio cable from the piano to the computer to get a signal.

If you want to record MIDI, any of the dozens of digital audio workstations available would do as they will record both midi and audio.


http://www.reaper.fm/download.php


Nb All of my explanation does not apply if Roland provides digital audio over USB, but I'm assuming it doesn't because this is not yet a standard feature on digital pianos.

Oh right. I'm a moron.

Thank you!

I just downloaded this... i have no bloody idea what to do. This is way too confusing, i just want to record some audio.

Forget it.

Steady on! Not a moron. It takes some mental backtracking to separate out midi from full digital audio (eg wave) since all these things happen under the computer's bonnet these days. And as with other computer operating systems, it's increasingly difficult to keep control of processes taking place under that bonnet.

I just opened Reaper. Any ideas how i go about this? No idea how to record, no idea what input/output settings to use.

This is already stressing me out.

Try using a jack cable from the headphone socket to your computer.

I thought all i needed was a USB-to-host, which is what im using.

If you do that, you'll be able to record in Audacity.

All i have is this USB-to-host right now. until i can get the other one, do you know how to get it working on Reaper?

Well I think your USB cable only carries midi, which is digital messages, not really audio. But in Reaper, if you go to options, preferences, midi devices.

Inside this window you can enable Roland midi (or some similar name).

Then open a track and in the input select, deselect audio and select midi, then Roland.

This should give you a midi signal when you play the keyboard.

But for the sake of simplicity, it's probably easier to record audio using a jack cable from the piano phones output to the jack input on your computer.

Perhaps this PICTURE will help.

The line-output (or headphone jack) produces an audio signal. It can be sent to an amplifier and speakers. Or, as pictured here, it can be sent to a PC's line-input, and can be recorded using Audacity.

The USB-to-host output produces a MIDI data signal. This is a record of your piano keystrokes. It contains no audio. It you run VST host software on the PC (along with an "instrument library") it can interpret those keystrokes and produce sound. You can listen to that sound via PC speakers. You can record it with Audacity. Or you can record it with the VST software itself.

You can record directly to a USB flash drive. The strange thing is the manual doesn't say what format recordings are saved as, only that you can play back .WAV and MIDI files copied to a flash drive from other sources. If you can save as a .WAV file that you can bypass having to record into the computer and just copy the files for playing or editing later. Most digital pianos can save recording as .WAV files. Maybe Jay Roland can clarify how the FP-30 saves recordings.

It's not that you're dumb, it's that the alternatives are complicated, and not simple to explain.

Try in this order:

a) If the FP30 has a place to plug in a USB _drive_ -- a "memory stick" or "thumb drive" -- _and_ the manual says you can record audio on that drive (that is, a "WAV" file):

. . . Plug in a USB drive (= thumb drive = memory stick) and record onto it.

You can then remove the USB drive from the FP30, plug it into your computer, and edit the WAV file using Audacity. [Audacity is _way_ simpler to use than Reaper, or any other DAW (digital audio workstation].

No "MIDI recording" is involved in that process. No additional cables. The sound you get is the sound that the FP30 produces.


b) If the FP30 _doesn't_ record WAV files to a USB drive, you have a choice:

b1) Run an _audio_ cable from the FP30 (either a headphone jack, or "Line Out" if the FP30 has "Line Out") to your computer's "Line In" or "Mic" input. Then, use a computer-based audio recorder (I like "Audacity") to record the sound produced by the FP30.

b2) Run a _digital_ cable (probably "USB A" to "USB B" -- a "USB printer cable") from the FP-30 to the computer. That will carry MIDI data (essentially, information about which keys you pressed, how hard, for how long). You can record that with _MIDI_ recording software (e.g. Reaper). You can play back the MIDI file using Reaper's piano sounds, or run it back into the FP30 and use the FP30's own sound generator. (Details require another post).

b3) If the FP30 supports _MIDI recording_ to a USB drive, record your playing as a MIDI file. Move the USB drive to your computer, and use Reaper (or some other MIDI software) to edit it, and generate sound (as in (b2)).

This is why people buy little digital-audio recorders like the Tascam and Zoom H2.

So i bought myself this thing today.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZKM3SHK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got it working, but the problem is i cant plug in both of the bigger ends because theres 1 headphone sized jack and one bigger one on the roland FP30 (and so i only seem to be getting audio in one headphone speaker in stereo)

Any ideas?

You need to plug a stereo jack into the piano, exactly like the one on the headphone cable. Otherwise you'll only get a mono signal or a short circuit.

Like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/3-5mm-Stereo-Audio-Cable-BLACK/dp/B01LW9EBPQ

Or the larger headphone jack, depending on what's on offer on your piano.

Ah dammit!

Jameshhh, have you followed the advice of David Farley, and Charles Cohen, about recording to your piano, and saving the recording to a USB flash drive?

According to page 3 of the manual (click here for the manual), it's quite simple to record that way.

The only caveat is, we don't know to which format the FP-30 records. If it's WAV, then you're in the pink. I'm curious to know the format of the recording, and I'm sure a lot of other people are. It would help other owners of a Roland FP-30 to find out.

The only way to find out, unless Jay Roland comes and gives us the answer, is to record a short passage, save it to a USB stick, and then examine the USB drive on your computer.

If you can record in an audio format, like WAV, to a USB flash drive, then that's the most trouble-free way to do it. In that case, you won't need any cables whatsoever, not for the purpose of recording, at least.

As far as I know, Both FP-30 and R-140R record only MIDI.

What I do is use USB audio interface that takes line-in and use laptop to record the audio coming from the piano in WAV format with Audacity. All you need is 3.5mm -> RCA cable so that you can connect your piano to audio interface.

https://www.thomann.de/fi/behringer_ucontrol_uca_202.htm

These Roland's only use the USB A for storage of the instrument's single track recorder. They're saved as midi files (SMF). That port can also be used for playback of same, from any source. If Jameshhh is still aboard...and hasn't killed himself trying to decipher Reaper.