I get this question a lot. And I have been known as the cable doctor over the years, making numerous house calls to configure my friends' computer to piano connections, whether they desire to record audio or MIDI. Oftentimes, I find that they don't know what kind of cables to use or where to find them. If you have a digital piano and you want to make pristine recordings, the number of rings on the end of the cables matters a lot! You'll want to make sure you're recording in stereo sound, and this is where most people make errors when choosing cables for home recording. You will not be able to record in stereo if you don't have the right number of rings on your cables (see below)! These are the two products you'll need to do home recording. How much is it going to cost? About $20 or so:
1. Hosa 1/4-Inch TRS Male to Dual 1/4-Inch TS Y-Cable 4 Meter : My favorite cable for recording!
2. Hosa 3.5mm female TRS to 2.5mm male TRS adaptor (ok, the one in the picture below is not the exact one I linked to here, but it has the right specs and will work fine).
The cable set-up below makes nice stereo recordings. For you techno nerds, TRS means tip, ring, and sleeve and is just a fancy acronym for a stereo jack with both R and L signals. TS is a mono cable that is missing that second ring, and therefore only has a single L signal (mono).
TRS = 2 RINGS = STEREO
TS = 1 RING = MONO
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Keyboard to Computer Cable Diagram (www.freethepiano.blogspot.com)Now you may be wondering what software to use, and how much it will cost. For basic home recording, even semi-professional recording, I use freeware called Audacity. Audacity is freeware that is available as a free download from the Internet. It also has basic editing tools which I use all the time. You can make mp3s and even compress them to a small size that is convenient for e-mail and web. But don't forget to download the LAME mp3 encoder also! More on this in another post... |
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