Recording Piano

[Daren]

Hi,
A lot of digital pianos only have 1 track song for recording,which is not a lot of use to me as my Yamaha only has 1.
If I have spent several months at mastering a new piece I want to be able to record it and save it for playback.
I could save it to tape but even better if I saved it to a cd.
Then my friends and people I work with could demo it on there hifi systems.

I dont have any tools to even do a recording to tape.
Do you save any of your masterpieces and if so what do you all use to record with?

regards,
Daz.

[xvimbi]

Hi,
A lot of digital pianos only have 1 track song for recording,which is not a lot of use to me as my Yamaha only has 1.
If I have spent several months at mastering a new piece I want to be able to record it and save it for playback.
I could save it to tape but even better if I saved it to a cd.
Then my friends and people I work with could demo it on there hifi systems.

I dont have any tools to even do a recording to tape.
Do you save any of your masterpieces and if so what do you all use to record with?

You could connect your digital to a computer and record either the keystrokes (MIDI) and create the sound in the computer, or directly record the sound that your digital produces on your computer. There are many threads on this forum where this is discussed. It of course depends on what capabilities your digital has and what kind of computer you have.

[alextryan]

I've been struggling with this same thing recently.

The trouble with recording from digital is that it will never, no matter how good a sampled piano with midi you use, sound like a real piano.  I finally gave up on that route and have just purchased a good microphone for recording acoustic instruments.  The mic is about $250 but will last forever.  I'm next going to buy a relatively cheap tape recorder, and then I will play the tape into my computer for editing and digitization.  The good quality mic reduces tape hiss, and although you do lose quality in the process, you end up with a slightly fuzzy recording of a real instrument with real acoustics rather than a plasticky recording of a digital instrument. 

Also, who wants to play their masterpieces on a plastic piano for posterity?  If you're going to record a piece once and for all, you may as well enjoy playing it on a decent piano.  Sneak into a church for an hour or something. 

Good luck!

[xvimbi]

I've been struggling with this same thing recently.

The trouble with recording from digital is that it will never, no matter how good a sampled piano with midi you use, sound like a real piano.  I finally gave up on that route and have just purchased a good microphone for recording acoustic instruments.  The mic is about $250 but will last forever.  I'm next going to buy a relatively cheap tape recorder, and then I will play the tape into my computer for editing and digitization.  The good quality mic reduces tape hiss, and although you do lose quality in the process, you end up with a slightly fuzzy recording of a real instrument with real acoustics rather than a plasticky recording of a digital instrument. 

Also, who wants to play their masterpieces on a plastic piano for posterity?  If you're going to record a piece once and for all, you may as well enjoy playing it on a decent piano.  Sneak into a church for an hour or something. 

In order to make halfway decent recordings of an acoustic, you will need at least two microphones, one close, and the other one further away from the strings (dry and wet sounds). If you want, you can place a couple more at some spots in the room to pick up the acoustics of the room itself. The microphones need to have different capabilities to properly pick up the different frequencies and dynamics.

If you skimp on the recording equipment, you won't get a decent result no matter how good your microphones are. Nowadays, the easiest way is to connect the microphone(s) directly to a computer, rather than to a tape recorder. Best would be to have a good amplifier in between ($$$).

In any case, if you want to record for posterity, as opposed to for practicing and analysis purposes, it is probably much cheaper to go to a professional recording studio.

[Sketchee]

I've been struggling with this same thing recently.

The trouble with recording from digital is that it will never, no matter how good a sampled piano with midi you use, sound like a real piano.

You could either play midi back through your digital or there are real pianos that can play midi.

[FST2]

 Recording Acoustic piano in the average sized room is quite tricky.  All you can do is experiment with the positioning of the microphone(s) to achieve the best effect.
 However, the original thread starter here has a digital.  This is SO much easier!
 All you have to do is connect the Headphone socket from the digital into the 'Line IN' of the sound card of the computer.
 Then use a recording program such as Goldwave.  www.goldwave.com  This is free to try.  Or use any sound recording program that you happen to have.
 This will create a .wav file, which can then be edited.
 It is also possible to convert the wav file  to mp3. (if you need to)
 Then, use a program such as Nero to convert the wav file  'on the fly'  to .cda format and burn it onto a CD-R.

 It is then possible to play the CD in any standard hi-fi.

  This may sound difficult, but with a little practice, this is really quite easy, and the sound reproduction can be very good indeed. (best to use the wav file for conversion to cda.  mp3 can also be very good, but normally, by default, a lower 'bit rate' is selected, which reduces the quality)

 Buy the connecting lead (or cord as they call it in the US) from computer shop or electrical shop, such as Radio Shack.
 It needs a  6.35mm plug at the Keyboard end , and a 3.5 mm plug at the computer end.  To achieve this combination of plugs, you may have to use two leads, or some type of adaptor.  Also, the lead needs to be at least 4m or 5m long.

[chopin2256]

I can record your piano music to sound very realistic.  Go to my website Recording Studio

Check out my piano demos, and look around.  Its perfect for the composer who wants a demo.

[fowler]

Do what I do, simple and a good result. Connect a hi-fi system to the back of your digital piano, through using phono plugs to the aux.channel on the hi-fi-amp, and midi out or rather L/R output sockets on the piano. Its as easy as that, then you can record from the aux. channel to tape on the hi-fi.

[GG]

Does anybody use a Sony minidisc? If you do, how do you get the tracks to a Windows XP computer?
Thank you!