I have read all the pertinent discussions here and the very good series of articles by Matthijs on his PianoClues blog.

Yet, I remained utterly confused.

Unfortunately, I am not very technical and I have had this wonderful Roland MP-300 digital piano for years and have never had the know-how to record from it. I play mostly sacred and classical music and my folks would really like to be able to listen to some of the music I play, not just only at the church services we attend when we go visit them, a few times a year.

I went to a music store, they sold me a JV1010 synthesizer. Yea, all I needed is more confusion. I bought cables, software, etc. whatever anyone suggested. The sound card M-Audio Revolution PCI Rev.4 is so old by now it’s not even supported anymore and it doesn’t work with my XP system. I resolved the conflict with the internal on-board sound by disabling the latter in the BIOS. Still, no dice. There are no drivers specifically for Windows XP for it.

All I want to do is record from the MP-300 and make some CDs to give to my friends and kin.

I can’t tell what matches what, if any of the USB-MIDI interfaces are universal or work with only certain DPs, if using a USB-MIDI external interface is preferable to, say, an internal soundcard, etc.

Can somebody take pity of me and tell me what I need to buy?

Please?

Andrew

There are many ways to record .... but one of the easiest is with a Zoom H4, or Zoom H2, or if you want video also the new Zoom Q3.

No hassles with sound cards and such.

Theirs a thread on the new Q3 here :

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthrea...tml#Post1286685

Your piano has two outputs. You can record either of them.

1) And audio output called "line out" and

2) Midi. This is not audio. It is data that send what key is being pressed and released and how hard it is played.

You would only record midi data if you wanted to edit it, transpose, cut and pate and then convert to audio using a software virtual instrument. This is not likely what you want to do. So you can ignore USB and MIDI completely.

To record audio all you need is software that can record sound. an audio interface and a cable set to connect the DP to the audio interface.

But if you don't like computers and don't want to mess with them. Just plug in a tape recorder and press "record" then start playing. Easy? Well that is all you'd do with the computer except the record button is on the screen. same thing.

Take it one step at a time and ask questions along the way. I'd start with software.

What to buy? What is your budget? What kind of computer do you have now?

Thank you for your incredibly quick reply.

I tried the tape-recorder bit. Sound is muddled, can't correct mistakes, overall not very satisfactory to me. So, I don't mind MIDI, since it will give me more latitude post.

Budget: up to $200

Computer: I have a homebrew. I build my own PCs.

Board:
---------
Intel Corporation DP35DP
Bus Clock: 266 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp. DPP3510J.86A.0572.2009.0715.2346 07/15/2009
3326 Megabytes Usable Installed RAM

Processor
-------------
2.40 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

OS
----
Dual-booting into XP-SP3 and Windows 7

Got lots of software: Cakewalk, Audacity, Vegas, Cubase, etc.

I mess around quite a bit with audio. Converting, editing, up-sampling, creating faux 5.1 from stereo for my car's DVD-A player, etc.

So I am not uncomfortable wth either software or computers. It's the silly cables and gadgets as they are applicable to the digital piano that I am befuddled with. Things change so fast I can't keep up. I feel embarrassed that I have had this terrific piano for all these years and never did anything with it except play late at night with headphones on so I won't distrub the family.

I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the mechanics of the setup: interface, cables, etc. I don't need video.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Andrew

Thank you for your incredibly quick reply.

I tried the tape-recorder bit. Sound is muddled, can't correct mistakes, overall not very satisfactory to me. So, I don't mind MIDI, since it will give me more latitude post.

Andrew [/quote]

OK then MIDI. As you know MIDI is keypress data not sound.
What you need is a MIDI to USB interface. Some of them look like cable with a bump in them. I have thr "Uno" but there are others
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Uno.html

You also need software that can record and edit MIDI and render it using some software instrument and then sound the sound out the audio interface.

You have cubase. That will do it. I think your first job is to learn cubase inside and out. The best why to learn is to watch some tutorial videos. The guys at macprovideo.com are very good. You can buy the videos outright ot buy a subscription. You can see some samples for free too.

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/cubase101

You can play to cubase without even connecting your keyborad. just click the mouse on the vitrual piano and ply "twinkle twinkle little star" very slowly. Connect the piano later.



Some audio interfaces connect to the computer with USB and these have better quality audio than your computer's built-in audio and some of these have a MIDI interface combined so you save some cables.
http://www.tascam.com/products/us-122mkII;9,15,3816,16.html

Later if you don't like the sound of cuBases piano you can buy one of the better software virtual pianos (Pianoteq?) and run it inside cubase. Or you can route the MIDI back through your DP and let the DP render the edited Midi data and then capture the audio via the line-outs. but this is LATER. for now just use Cubase

The major thing, the biggest learning curve will be the software. Once you invest the time to learn it you will NOT want to switch to something else. So choose wisely and think ahead. CuBse is widely used and not a bad choice. It is popular because it is bundled "free" with a lot of recording equipment. "Pro Tools" is the industry standard and is used in most professional recording studios. After that I think Apple's "Logic" is number two and quickly catching up. PT is expensive and needs specialized hardware. Logic run only on Macs. So you might just want to stick with CuBase unless a new computer is in the works then I'd start out with Logic on the Mac. Either way expect to spend maybe 50+ hours of study time with the software. There are a lot of new concepts to learn.

Thank you, Chris. Your reply is perfect. I will go with the Tascam and Cubase.

I may be able to finish a CD for Christmas. It would please my family and it would save me A LOT of money in gifts to everyone.

I am very grateful for all your help.

Kind regards,

Andrew

Appreciate your reply, dannac.

This get up appears to be ideal for a concert recording or somebody who wants to upload stuff to YouTube. What I want is as clean a sound as I can manage. One of these days, when I clean up the piano room downstairs, where the acoustic Baldwin is, I may look at the H4 as a means to show off not only play skill, but also style. ;-)

Thanks.

Andrew