Recording a keyboard

[Jake Johnson]

I'm new to recording keyboards and thus may have a very elementary question: Since the sound of a keyboard is partly dependent upon the size of the cones in the speakers, to get a good recording of the piano sound from a keyboard,is it best to mic the speakers, just as you mic a guitar?

Keyboards seem made to plug directly into a recorder, yet I get poor sound quality if I do this (or attach midi cables from the keyboard to my hard disk recorder).

What is the best way to get a good sound while attaching the keyboard directly to the recorder? (I'm wanting a good piano sound.)

[Prophecy]

Well I would suggest you this:

- If you have a sblive soundcard that supports SoundFonts, you can connect your key's midi OUT to your soundcard's midi IN. Later you can download or buy a good piano soundfont.

You can use a midi editor like cakewalk to do this.
It's very simple and easy.

Good luck let me know if you need anything else.

- Javier

[major240]

Usually the most direct route is best. I'm not aware of any advantage to recording the amp speaker beside the fact that it will produce a different sound. It will not be cleaner...but can pick up some room/live characteristics.
See what happens.
It may be that you are unhappy with the piano patch that your keyboard is producing and that no way of recording it will change that. Depending on what kind of keyboard you have, you may be able to edit the patch characteristics internally and create a sound you like better.
If not, you can record the MIDI/event data and then replace the sound source if possible, as Jake recommends.

[Wide Awake]

This is something I'm passionate about.

I record keyboards all the time by miking my PA cabinet. If you have a keyboard amp they are great too. It IS a different sound and is more like the way you hear the keyboard. Going direct can be too clean and bland sometimes. However, if I record a digital acoustic-piano sound I usually go direct. It just depends. Electric piano, clav, organ, lead sounds, and any fat sounds are all fair game for miking. Speaker simulators can work great too. The bigger the speaker the better, a 15" woofer is the only way to hear the bass that synths are capable of. A minimoog or Virtual Analog synth through a pair of studio monitors is a joke, yet that's what how most keyboardist listen to them.

I have a Keyboard magazine from the 80's that has a roundtable discussion from many of the top producers about recording keyboards. Most of them talked about miking amps all the time. Yet, I will venture that very few keyboardists/home recorders' do that. They are missing out in my opinion.