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Thanks Mahlzeit!

I just asked this question at the composers forum earlier this evening.

Glad I looked here and saw your thread.

When I have more time I will read it and put it to use.

Great job Mahlzeit!

And some timely advice on handling recording situations for audio. Do you have any experience with video and suggestions?

Mark

Thanks for the advice! Glad someone smart and has the time to help the rest of us out!

question:

I was able to hook up my ES4 with a USB connection and record some music. But the play back using Red Dot gives it a harpsichord sound from my computer. It sounds fine through the piano itself. Suggestions, otherwise all my songs will seem like an Adams Family reunion...

Mark,

You'll only get a midi recording with a usb hookup. If you want the acoustic sound from your piano, you'll have to hook up using either the line-in (or headphones to mic) and fool around with audacity or similar software to record.

With the midi you can switch out the instrument or use software pianos to add back in the piano voice (you might want to look at the free soundfonts etc if you want to start playing around with giving midis back a sampled piano sound (the end path of going down this route are the rather expensive sampled piano software such as Akoustik, Ivory, Art Vista etc..

Good luck.

Thanks Sid, I was wondering why the Audacity wouldn't work. I guess back to the drawing board.

Mark

mahlzeit,

To record from your acoustic piano here are a few options:

* Condenser microphone (or two, for stereo).

* A professional mixer from E-Bay with microphone module. I got two professional-grade Peaveys for $60.

* Audacity is the free recording program of choice.

* Ensure your computer is capable of sampling audio input in the form of a microphone or line-in jack. Most modern PC's have this capability.

In my case the whole setup ran about $130. To do stereo I'd need to spend another $60 for another microphone and cord and another $??? for a second microphone module. I already have the two mixers.

Once you perform your recording, depending on your PC you'll need to remove the noise. My PC generates a lot of noise into the AC line, and this gets picked up by the mixer and must be removed with Audacity. Yet, if you remove too much you'll affect the recording's acoustic quality (make it sound like your in a room with wierd walls).

The alternative is much simpler but costlier: get the Zoom recorder. It will not have the line noise problems.

Can someone please direct me to the following cable to purchase. I've been searching and can't seem to find one. Thanks

"To use Line Out, you'll want to use a stereo cable with two big mono jacks on one end and a small stereo jack on the other."

Even Wal-Mart may have this.

Mark737

You are looking for a RCA to 3.5 mm (1/8") stereo mini plug. They can be found almost anywhere eg. Radio Shack, Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, any electronics shop etc. Gerg has posted the picture.

K

I thought they had to have the 1/4 male ends like these?

BTW, thanks for the replies Helen&ken and gerg...

I had a look at the ES 4 manual and it is difficult to tell from the drawing but it does look like a phono jack rather than a RCA connector. You can use adapters as your picture above indicates or get a stereo 3.5 mm (1/8") mini plug to mono 1/4" phono jacks as it is probably cheaper. This still should be easy to find but get one with a long cord.



K

The picture from gerg is correct, that's the same type of cable I used. But notice that I did add two converter plugs from RCA to big mono jacks.

The cable from Helen&Ken's picture is even better (no converter plugs necessary) but I couldn't find one of those anywhere in my local stores.

You are correct. I do need the (2)1/4 inch males to the single 1/8 male. Thank you all very much for your help. I'm off to Radio Shack today...

Mark

I'm up and working. For a while I didn't think the Radio Shack guy was going to find all the pieces to get it working.

Thanks everyone again!

Ok, now I'm able to record but when I wear my headphones I lose my stereo sound. And it's difficult to play in mono...

And ideas?

Mark

That's weird. So you're saying that if you plug something into your piano's Line Out, that the headphone sound becomes mono? Are you sure the headphones are plugged in all the way?

If this isn't a case of operator error then you can try to listen to your playing through the computer. Open the Volume Control Panel and enable playback for the Line In device.

This is assuming you're recording on Line In, not Mic In. Mic In is always mono. Try to record through Line In if at all possible.

The headphones are in right. And I can listen through the built in speakers when the headphones are out. But I was hoping to record without disturbing the family...

Then enable playback from your computer and plug the headphones into your computer.