Is it safe to plug in a piano to my laptop?

Pianoteq - Pianoteq 6

Download that ^ Very easy, very safe program and very nice people. What you will have there is a MIDI "engine" that will play very good piano (and other instruments now) You can use the on screen virtual kbd but with a suitable AI and DIN MIDI cables, play it from the Clavolina. The trial is free but limited but gives you a really good idea of what MIDI is about.

You see, Steenamaroo and I are really concerned that you will plump for the 2i2 when for just a little more money you could get the 214 with DIN ports (but DO bear that Tascam in mind!)
Mr S also says he has little experience of the 2i2, neither do I but I agree they are good interfaces and Focusrite have a superb marketing machine!

The "mono/stereo thing with guitar is worth thinking through. Yes, electric guitar is (apart from very rare specials!) a single channel instrument but that does not mean it will produce a mono "effect" when recorded. No, it will come either from the left or from the right speaker (hphone) depending where you plugged it.
"Mono" only comes from a two channel system when IDENTICAL signals are sent to both speakers, called a "phantom mono image"

I know of no interface that does that. You are stuck with a one sided recording. Some DAWs allow you to record a single channel as two mono tracks (which plays as a phantom image) but I only know of one, Samplitude. I guess you can fix it post tracking but I don't know how because I use Samplitude and don't have too! (can't play anyway).

You could use the misnamed "splitter" cable to get two TS jacks from the guitar and record both channels that way. Some recordists use the DI input and a mic on an amp and mix and match later.

Lot to think about I know but we would hate to see the ship buggered for a cent's worth of tar!

Dave.
 
No, it will come either from the left or from the right speaker (hphone) depending where you plugged it.
"Mono" only comes from a two channel system when IDENTICAL signals are sent to both speakers, called a "phantom mono image"

I know of no interface that does that. You are stuck with a one sided recording. Some DAWs allow you to record a single channel as two mono tracks (which plays as a phantom image) but I only know of one, Samplitude. I guess you can fix it post tracking but I don't know how because I use Samplitude and don't have too! (can't play anyway).

You could use the misnamed "splitter" cable to get two TS jacks from the guitar and record both channels that way. Some recordists use the DI input and a mic on an amp and mix and match later.

Panning...? Surely every daw does this?
There's no need for splitters when recording guitar.
 
Panning...? Surely every daw does this?
There's no need for splitters when recording guitar.

I think it is probably a semantic thing on Dave's part more than anything else. For example, if you have a mono mixing desk, and you daisy change two speakers to its mono output, you will get a 'phantom mono image', but you haven't really created an identical signal as such. You've just sent the one signal to two destinations.

If you have a stereo mixer with a mono input, then the sending of the signal to two destinations happens inside the mixer, rather than at its outputs, and panning controls the relative levels sent to each destination.

I agree with Dave when he says "the original recording is still obstinately one channel", but I disagree that this one channel must be either left or right, and that to you consequently need to record double mono. Whether it's left or right or mono is a function of output, rather than input, because it depends on the configuration of routing once it is inside the DAW.
 
Looks like you can set your track to mono before recording, Dave.
As far as I know that's the norm. Shouldn't need duplication tricks or splitters.
 
Looks like you can set your track to mono before recording, Dave.
As far as I know that's the norm. Shouldn't need duplication tricks or splitters.

Where did that MAGIX link go? Too knackered to listen last night but gone now and I wanted a harken!

I did not consider setting Samplitude to record dual mono a "trick", just something we did. I was merely pointing out that the default result of recording just one input is a single track on the left or right.

Dave.
 
Where did that MAGIX link go? Too knackered to listen last night but gone now and I wanted a harken!

I edited it out. I realised afterwards it was for the wrong suite.
Sorry.

I did not consider setting Samplitude to record dual mono a "trick", just something we did. I was merely pointing out that the default result of recording just one input is a single track on the left or right.

Dave.

I understand. I'm countering because I've never known this to be true and our OP is a beginner.
If the first lesson you learn is that a vocal or guitar recording is stuck to the left, or right, and needs to be duplicated, or recorded with splitters, to be heard out of both speakers you're not off to the easiest of starts. :p

Just trying to help, Dave, and keep it simple. ;)
 
I edited it out. I realised afterwards it was for the wrong suite.
Sorry.



I understand. I'm countering because I've never known this to be true and our OP is a beginner.
If the first lesson you learn is that a vocal or guitar recording is stuck to the left, or right, and needs to be duplicated, or recorded with splitters, to be heard out of both speakers you're not off to the easiest of starts. :p

Just trying to help, Dave, and keep it simple. ;)

Hmm? Some sort of weirdness here. I shall have to investigate and get back to you. My aim is exactly the same. NOT to get a noob confused!

Dave.
 
Where has the spirit of experimentation gone. I have three distinct audio levels that I keep separate. Mic level, line level and speaker level. Each has variations. However overload has never killed any of my kit in 40 years as long as you take care. Home keyboards and comp0uter equipment are usually designed with idiots in mind - as in the average consumer who sees a socket and assumes if a plug fits, it works.

If you plug something into an audio input - clearly if it's a 2.5KW amplifier with speaking - then there will be serious volts there, but if the device is an MP3 player capable of driving headphones loud, it can still be turned down and connected to a mic input with the gain righty down. Then you slowly creep the gain up and see what happens. Could be instant distortion, or music can appear. If it's music, you tweak the input and output for best quality and level
When I was a teenager and knew no better I connected a radiogram speaker out to my Grundig TK24 reel to reel. I now know that the output transformer on the stereo would have been an 'interesting' source for the Grundig - but I recorded Pick of the pops on the BBC for years this way. Has anyone ever had a product that "will blow up" if you do X or Y? basic experimentation can be fun and a great learning process.

Where would guitars be without overload!
 
I blame "Da Meeja" Sci Fi and "Bond" type action movies ALWAYS show an electrical fault as a shower of sparks and often an explosion. The reality, for most electrical equipment failures is far less dramatic*. In these times of MCBs instead of fuseboxes you hardly know the circuit has died. The failed equipment might issue a faint "pop" but mainly the lights just fade out.

When I was 14 or so I was building valve amps in my parent's cellar. Yup, concrete floor and I knew FA about safety. I had a ready supply of KT66s and pre amp valves and once, after reading about them decided to connect two 66s up as a multivibrator. Mum's hairdressing "salon" was above and I heard a weird noise from the radio up there.
Then came a shout from the cellar door. It seemed the GROSSLY overloaded 25W pentodes had wiped out radio reception for several streets around!

*But! There is a terrifying YT vid about pole pigs and other BIG switchgear blowing up!

Dave.
 
Audio signals aside, power supplies can cause backfires when mismatched, which WE know but lot's don't! YouTube


The story may be apocryphal but supposedly Randy Bachmann used to destroy tube amps by plugging the speaker outputs of one into the guitar inputs of one or more other amps. Not recommended.
 
I used to build Jacobs ladder spark gizmos, thanks to my physics teacher, and discovered too how unfriendly they are to radios and TVs, let alone other more sophisticated receivers. They were also very painful too - kind of like tasers!
 
Back
Top