Has anyone recorded using digital piano?

[march05]

Has anyone recorded straight from a digital piano to disc/computer, without using microphone? I'm curious how the quality would compare to a real acoustic recording..

I'm thinking of doing some recording at home, but the room i have is very noisy with traffic noise, so i'm wondering which would be a better choice: 1) buy a mic, a sound-card, and soundproof the room, or 2) use the money to buy a higher-end digital piano instead and record digitally without a mic...

Also, i don't know if the digitally recorded sound will be acceptable for classical repertoire? Any help?

Please do post any samples of digital piano recording if it's not too much trouble...

Thanks!

[johnny-boy]

Hey march05,

Here's a track I recorded digitally this week. I used a Yamaha (88 weighted keys). You be the judge.

I have no problem recording with digital piano. It's great not having outside noise leak on the track.

"Oriental Flavoring"
https://www.artistcollaboration.com/~johnny-boy/Oriental%20Flavoring%20II.mp3

Best, John

[Derek]

Has anyone recorded straight from a digital piano to disc/computer, without using microphone? I'm curious how the quality would compare to a real acoustic recording..

I'm thinking of doing some recording at home, but the room i have is very noisy with traffic noise, so i'm wondering which would be a better choice: 1) buy a mic, a sound-card, and soundproof the room, or 2) use the money to buy a higher-end digital piano instead and record digitally without a mic...

Also, i don't know if the digitally recorded sound will be acceptable for classical repertoire? Any help?

Please do post any samples of digital piano recording if it's not too much trouble...

Thanks!

I got a male-to-male cable (with the headphone style jack at both ends) and plugged it into the headphone jack on my digital piano, and the other end into the microphone jack of my computer. Then I use Cool Edit (any recording software will work) to record the sound. It is easily the highest-quality setup I've ever used. Here's a recording I made on my Roland F-100 digital, recorded directly into my dell laptop with no microphone:

a digital recording

[johnny-boy]

Sounds great Derek!

I'm considering getting this for my sampler:
https://www.williamcoakley.com/piano.php?product=V

Best, John

[march05]

Thanks John & Derek for your infos and samples! I'm convinced now that it's worth experimenting with digital recording before deciding further... I have a question though, looking at the many branded piano-sound libraries out there, does it mean that any digital piano, cheap or expensive, will record to exactly the same sounds as long as we use a particular sound library?

[gerry]

The really amazing thing about digital recording is that the track goes directly into a software program where you can manipulate your performance - if you released a note too soon, you can extend the sound or shorten it if you held it too long, if you play a wrong note, you can delete it and insert the correct one, adjust tempo, etc.  I recently recorded a 4-hand (Faure's Dolly Suite) with a relative on two separate digital pianos in two different rooms, using headphones. The result was pretty damn amazing and the beauty is we could play with the tracks later and adjust them. I know it all sounds dishonest, but the technology is here to stay. PS: we were using a small professional recording studio with all the bells and whistles so the above was facilitated. For best results you really must use a good digital, weighted 88-key type (Yamaha, Roland, Kurtzweil, etc.) You can experiement with piano samples until you get the one you like.

[march05]

That's really interesting, being able to "fix" wrong notes digitally! Yeah, I guess it's probably considered unethical to do that in an audition/competition CD, but then I think there's nothing wrong with doing it if it's a personal recording... It saves time not having to keep repeating a piece until every single note fall exactly right...

[gerry]

Yeah...the frightening thing is you could in essence build a piece like a Chopin Etude note by note into a software program and actually create a virtual performance without even being able to play it. Makes you wonder about some of the flashy recordings we hear...