Audio Recording

This is a beginner tutorial on how to record electronic piano keyboards in your PC. There are two common methods to be illustrated in this tutorial for best results. Before you can record anything to your PC, you need a decent external USB audio interface (commonly used with PC than Firewire) which you can connect to your computer. If you are really on the tight budget, you can refer to this post on the cheapest 24-bit/96KHz USB audio interface.

This assumes you are using Windows operating system.

First Method: Direct Recording of Keyboard through Audio Interface

The first technique is very straightforward. All you need is to connect your keyboard line output to the audio interface input.

This is the signal flow path:

Your Keyboard == > Line output == > Audio Interface Input (either Firewire or USB) == > USB connection == > PC

Once connected to your PC, you can use any recording software to track the music that is coming out from your keyboards. There are many recording software that you can use but I suggest using Reaper as they have complete features and the licensing costs are reasonable.

Some tips:

1.) Some keyboards do not have a standard line output. In this case, you can use the headphone output. But most keyboards headphone output are small, for example see below:

You need a cable such as shown below so that it can be connected to your audio interface input:

Then use TS jack in connecting to your audio interface input. This is the TS jack:

Finally you can connect your keyboards through the audio interface input such as shown below:

2.) The output from your electronic piano keyboard (particularly if taken from the headphone outputs) is not a weak signal so do not turn on the Instrument switch on your audio interface. Instrument switch are meant for very weak signals such as coming from dynamic/condenser microphones or electric guitars.

3.) If the signal is too hot (clipping red) in your audio interface indicator, then turn on the pad switch to attenuate the incoming hot signal from your keyboard.

4.) Finally you need to adjust the preamp gain on your audio interface for best recording signal, you should aim somewhere -18dB to -6dB; see screenshot:

5.) Once you get a good recording signal from your keyboard, you can then start tracking/recording it using your DAW/recording software. You need to record at least 24-bits/48 KHz.

This is a sample recording of a piano keyboard made with this method (no effects applied after recording):

The keyboard used in the recording is very old one and can be bought today at less than $40.

Second Method: Using an Amplifier to Record the Keyboard

In this method, you will need an amplifier cabinet and a microphone. You will simply connect the keyboard first to your amplifier cabinet line input such as this one:

You can still use the headphone output of your keyboard and connect it to the amplifier cabinet line input using the same set of connectors and cables used with the first method.

The next step would be to adjust the amplifier for desired effect settings. These include reverb, treble, bass, etc. You might as well consider the effect of the room where the amplifier has been placed. This can have a profound impact on the quality of the recording.

Next put place a microphone at the speaker cabinet of the amplifier such as this one:

Take note that I am using dynamic microphone (an SM 58), you can experiment any other microphones including condenser microphones. Finally connect the microphone output to your audio interface input. The signal flow paths are as follows:

Your Keyboard == > Line or headphone output == > Amplifier cabinet Line input == > Microphone == > Audio Interface Input == > USB connection == > PC

Adjust the recording signal using the same technique as the first method and then you can proceed with recording the keyboards.

Tips:

1.) Spend some time in getting a good sound of your amplifier. Adjust the settings to your desired sound.

2.) For best results, you can use an amplifier cabinet designed for reproducing keyboard sounds.

This is a sample keyboard sound recorded using the second method: