Keyboard Recording Issue

[daffsongwriter]

I have tried a few ways to combat this small problem. I have a new Roland E60, 71 keys workstation, brilliant keyboard and I love it to bits. I noticed when recording into my Boss BR900 that on playback from the Boss the volume was very quiet, even though I had altered the levels accordingly. I have to jack sockets at the back of the machine (left & right) and also 2 Phono jack points at the front. I was told to not use the Phono jacks in case it damages the keyboard, only use them for headphones, which is what I do. With my old keyboard I had to use the Phono jack as that was the only one it had for that, and it worked great. The volume was fine. I can save the music from the keyboard on to a memory card, transfer to pc and burn onto a cd then I can import that onto the Boss, I may try that and see if the volumen is better. It is all trial and error at the moment.Just wondered if anybody had experienced the same thing. My keyboard has a 16 track sequencer.Thanks.Daff xx

[ephlat66]

daff-I use slightly different equipment, but basically the same type of setup. I use a motif es7 and record into a fostex vf160. So, these hints may not be useful at all, but when I first got the vf160, I had a similar issue, so I thought i'd chime in.The first thing I do is monitor my headphones from the vf160. That way i'm able to troubleshoot output levels much easier.Certainly you've already checked that the master output level from the keyboard is right, and that the source/record levels are right (if you're buss recording) and that the gain knob is right, as well as the master output on the Boss. This is going to sound stupid, but in my case there was another thing that befuddled me for several hours one day: The output volume from the vf160 was really low.... turned out I had turned down the volume knob for the headphone jack!That BR900 has an onboard cd burner doesn't it? Maybe burn a cd and see if it's really recording low volume, or if you're just monitoring it low.This may not be helpful at all, but maybe others more familiar with the Boss can pipe up with better suggestions.Peace, Don

[voni2724]

I have a lap top and one of my keyboard records tracks so it has a disk (floppy ) drive. Here are my questions: How do I get the music from the floppy disk to a CD? My lap top won't record the music. Do I need a program to burn my own music? Do a buy a seperate cd-rw drive? Thanks for reading!Lavonne

[bigdrisk]

Quote:I have a lap top and one of my keyboard records tracks so it has a disk (floppy ) drive. Here are my questions: How do I get the music from the floppy disk to a CD? My lap top won't record the music. Do I need a program to burn my own music? Do a buy a seperate cd-rw drive? Thanks for reading!LavonneI am pretty sure that your keyboard is "recording" MIDI-note information which is entirely different than actually recording audio (sound). You play and it records which keys are being pressed, at what pressure (velocity), how long, etc., so that it can basically play the keyboard for you (no hands) like a rolling scroll was used on the old player pianos. The actual sound of your keyboard is not being recorded. You could change patches while your keyboard is playing back the "recording" and the sound would change to the new patch because it didn't record the sound. It only recorded the way you played the notes.To get something onto CD you are going to have to come out of the 1/4-inch output(s) on your keyboard into some sort of recording device - your computer with recording software, or some other piece of recording hardware. Getting it from there to a CD will depend on the functionality of the recording device. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution. And certainly simply purchasing a CD-R or CD-RW burner will not do the trick.

[bigdrisk]

Quote:I was told to not use the Phono jacks in case it damages the keyboard, only use them for headphones, which is what I do. I don't see how using the headphone outputs could damage your keyboard. Whoever told you that is perhaps not that knowledgeable. The headphone jacks will definitely give you a stronger signal, and may indeed turn out to be too strong - perhaps even distorted. But it shouldn't hurt to try. The thing to remember is that the headphone output jacks are stereo, intended for stereo plugs (two-rings below the tip of the plug like at the end of your headphones cable) instead of the typical mono (one ring) plugs that you would use from the separate right and left outputs on the back of the keyboard. This means that you will need to acquire what is called an "insert" cable, which has a stereo plug on one end, and then splits that signal into 2 mono plugs on the other end. Some people think of this as a Y-cable, but because it is actually splitting the left and right signal (two rings) from the one end into separate one-ring plugs on the other end, it is really not a Y-cable.

[ibanez468]

Quote:I have a lap top and one of my keyboard records tracks so it has a disk (floppy ) drive. Here are my questions: How do I get the music from the floppy disk to a CD? My lap top won't record the music. Do I need a program to burn my own music? Do a buy a seperate cd-rw drive? Thanks for reading!voni2724,Everything bigdrisk is saying is so. First you'll need a program that records audio or MIDI for the laptop. Most of these programs can be downloaded from the net to use on a trial basis, and they'll usually allow you to do specific things and not give you the whole package, or they'll give you the whole package, but only for a certain amount of time, after which, they'll expire and probably won't be usable unless you purchase the program. Then you'll have to purchase an item to get the sound from your keyboard, into the computer. You may be able to use the "line in" or "mic" inputs on the laptop to get the sound recorded inside the computer, but you'll need a cord (as bigdrisk suggests) that'll convert from 1/4" stereo to 1/8" stereo. I have these, and have been able to get sound inside the computer this way. Usually the outputs on a keyboard is 1/4" stereo, but the input to record to the computer is 1/8" stereo. Radio Shack usually has the necessary items for this conversion. But then you still need to get the recorded sound out of the computer, onto the CD. In which case after all of that, you may be able to do from the computer. Most computers these days are capable of burning audio to a CD.I offer an easier solution for what you want to accomplish. I don't know how much money you're willing to part with, but either way, you're going to have to spend some money. So I suggest, for what you want to do, is to simply purchase a standalone CD recording unit. It's an easier setup to deal with IMO. I've tried all of these different things for recording, and by far this is the easiest way to get audio on a CD. I've included several links to devices that you can look up and read about to try and make a decision. But as I said, these offer the easiest solution to your particular situation. Hope this helps!ibanez468http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDe....m_ ... ie.shtmlOr you can just type in the words "cd recorders" in your search engine, and you'll get pages of manufacturers to choose from and their price ranges for these devices.

[ephlat66]

Quote:I have a lap top and one of my keyboard records tracks so it has a disk (floppy ) drive. Here are my questions: How do I get the music from the floppy disk to a CD? My lap top won't record the music. Do I need a program to burn my own music? Do a buy a seperate cd-rw drive? Thanks for reading!LavonneHi Lavonne-Welcome to the forum!There's quite alot of information here about recording using midi devices, computers, hard disk recorders and so on, so you might try searching. Also, just a suggestion - this question might be better as a new thread, since it's not really in response to the original question.Hope to hear more from you!Don

[daffsongwriter]

Quote:Quote:I was told to not use the Phono jacks in case it damages the keyboard, only use them for headphones, which is what I do. I don't see how using the headphone outputs could damage your keyboard. Whoever told you that is perhaps not that knowledgeable. The headphone jacks will definitely give you a stronger signal, and may indeed turn out to be too strong - perhaps even distorted. But it shouldn't hurt to try. The thing to remember is that the headphone output jacks are stereo, intended for stereo plugs (two-rings below the tip of the plug like at the end of your headphones cable) instead of the typical mono (one ring) plugs that you would use from the separate right and left outputs on the back of the keyboard. This means that you will need to acquire what is called an "insert" cable, which has a stereo plug on one end, and then splits that signal into 2 mono plugs on the other end. Some people think of this as a Y-cable, but because it is actually splitting the left and right signal (two rings) from the one end into separate one-ring plugs on the other end, it is really not a Y-cable.Hi, thank you very much for that. What I did try and found it a lot better was 2 things.1. I put a jack into the earphones socket to mute the sound from they E60's own speakers, as I thought this may force more volume through to the Boss, it did improve.But, the best one yet, which I have adhered to:2. I connected the leads from the keyboard to my small mixer unit, and that connected to my Boss, I can adjust the sound etc on the mixer which controlled everything, resulting in a really good, loud volume. In fact, it was too loud lol, turned it down a tad on the Tmix mixer, levels all correct on the Boss, and Bingo, its all hunky dory.All the helpful hints on this I have printed off though for future reference so again, thank you.Midi files are good, with my keyboard I have floppy disk drive and a memory card slot which I can use up to 4gig. I can use either in my laptop which means I can upload onto Taxi and my website. I have 2 ways to get the music onto a cd, either via my laptop or the Boss BR900, dont know if that answers voni2724 or not.Take care, Daff x

[daffsongwriter]

Quote:I have a lap top and one of my keyboard records tracks so it has a disk (floppy ) drive. Here are my questions: How do I get the music from the floppy disk to a CD? My lap top won't record the music. Do I need a program to burn my own music? Do a buy a seperate cd-rw drive? Thanks for reading!LavonneEasy - buy an external floppy disk drive for your laptop, they are connected with a usb cable, if you have windows xp or windows 2000 you shouldn't need to run the software cd that comes with the external floppy disk drive.I got mine from Amazon and it only cost me £15.I am lucky though as my E60 has floppy disk drive, and, a memory card slot which I can use up to 4gig in. As they are midi files I can store lots on floppy and absolutely billions on the 4gig memory card. Both of which will transfer onto my laptop as I have the external floppy disk drive (flopsy I call it). Then once the midi file is on your laptop, either convert it to mp3 then burn it on disk (Im presuming your laptop has a cd rewriter, if not private message me and Ill explain about them as well). I am not 100% sure if midi files play like normal audio tracks if not converted to mp3. Sorry if this is long winded and techno, if you haven't fallen asleep by now then god bless you.I hope I have helped and you haven't thrown your laptop out the window, dont do it, they make a mess ha ha.Daff x