Recording a keyboard: advice needed

artvanderlay

Hi there,

I have a blue audio snowball mic which I use with Audacity to record myself playing guitar and singing and have no problems there. Now I also wish to record my yamaha keyboard but when I use the mic it picks up the sound of my fingers hitting the keys as well as the sound from the keyboard speakers, so I tried recording direct from the keyboard by connecting a cable from the audio out slot to the line in/microphone slot on my laptop. This works to a certain degree but I have to turn the keyboard volume way down otherwise there is too much distortion. Is there any way around this? Do I need to buy a music interface or is there a simpler solution? I'm not trying to record anything too elaborate beyond keyboard, guitar and voice...

Thanks.

garancafan

Might be worth trying monitoring your playing via the laptop out (preferably digital out) with your keyboard volume out set to zero.

Dravokivich

The problem is with using a basic mic in on the laptop. Cant really handle the signal so os going to distort.

Youll get a usb interface handy enough. Just make sure you get 2 line inputs in it as well.

artvanderlay

Dravokivich wrote: »

The problem is with using a basic mic in on the laptop. Cant really handle the signal so os going to distort.

Youll get a usb interface handy enough. Just make sure you get 2 line inputs in it as well.

Would this do the job?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lexicon-Alpha-Studio-Audio-Interface/dp/B000HVXMNE/ref=zg_bs_407821031_3

The other thing is I have a usb mic, and the interface has a mic jack so could I just connect the keyboard to the interface and leave the mic connected direct to the laptop via the usb or for best results would I need to run the mic through the interface as well?

Dravokivich

Yeah, that'll do you. You can still use Audacity with it too. It seems to be quite old though, so before getting it, I'd recommend looking up their website to be sure they've drivers for your OS.

I wouldn't recommend using the mic in, on the Snowball. It's got to do with output levels from your keyboard, more so then just connecting it up. Which is why I referenced line inputs themselves.

artvanderlay

That lexicon one I was looking at will take a few weeks to be delivered. Would this behringer one be as good?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-302USB-Xenyx-Input-Mixer/dp/B005EHILV4/ref=sr_1_233?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1397066919&sr=1-233&keywords=audio+interface

Also, one other question - my yamaha keyboard has one audio out slot, not 2 (left and right), but this mixer has L and R inputs? Do I need a special cable for this or how does it work?

Thanks again and please excuse my ignorance. I have tried searching the internet for answers to my questions but there is a lot of conflicting information out there

Dravokivich

That could work too.

Even though your keyboard only has one output, it's likely to be a stereo output.

What you'd need is a "Y Jack Lead"

With the mixer in your last post, you'll need it to be a Y Jack Lead to Phono.

You'd get more options here:

http://www.thomann.de/ie/cat.html?gf=usb_audio_interfaces&oa=pra&sid=1eb052089393b207848d2ca33de67e29

For the different type of USB devices, depending on your budget. They've some Lexicon stuff there too. Could also give you an idea of other devices you may want to look up.

artvanderlay

Dravokivich wrote: »

That could work too.

Even though your keyboard only has one output, it's likely to be a stereo output.

What you'd need is a "Y Jack Lead"

With the mixer in your last post, you'll need it to be a Y Jack Lead to Phono.

You'd get more options here:

http://www.thomann.de/ie/cat.html?gf=usb_audio_interfaces&oa=pra&sid=1eb052089393b207848d2ca33de67e29

For the different type of USB devices, depending on your budget. They've some Lexicon stuff there too. Could also give you an idea of other devices you may want to look up.

Cool! I'll check out Thomanns too before I decide. Thanks again for all the advice.