What's the best way to record this "piano"?

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RAMI

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I was given a Casio Privia PX-100: Casio PX-100 Privia 88-Key Digital Piano | Musician's Friend

It's an 88 key, weighted key piano. From my limited knowledge of keyboards, it actually sounds pretty good.

I recorded one song with it by putting a mic over the little 4-inch built-in speaker, but I wonder if there's a better way to record it. Leaving MIDI out of it, the only OUTS on this thing are stereo 8th-inch headphone outs.

So, my options are

1) Mic the speaker like I did.
2) Take a line from the headphone out and run that into my interface.
3) Take a line from the headphone out and run that into a clean guitar amp (Peavey Studio Pro), and then mic the amp's speaker.

I know the answer is "try all of them and see what you like better". But the truth is, I'm not really able to judge what the best piano sound is since I've never recorded piano and don't really know which is the most "realistic" piano sound.

So, I'm just wondering what other people's first instinct would be.
 
Hey RAMI.
It's a big shame that thing doesn't have stereo line outs. I use line outs on my Yamaha all the time.

My first instinct would be to try the headphone out. Second would be to record midi (quantize off) and use a piano VST.
I'm pretty sure going into a guitar amp will suck, but who knows.

I never had any success micing the speakers on mine.
It might be OK room miced at full volume but it'd take a nice room for it to sound good, I guess.
You've got a nice sounding space, right? Maybe try that, rather than close micing like a guitar amp.
 
I have a similar Yamaha thing here and what I do is play into a vsti via midi, get it sounding as good as I can get it, sorting bummed notes, velocities, timing, etc and then play the midi back through the keyboard and record the sounds onto a new track via the headphone/line out into my soundcard.

If I didn't fanny about with the midi I'd just do the headphone/line out/soundcard bit and play/record. :thumbs up:
 
Thanx Steen.

Yeah, I ran it into a guitar amp yesterday, but those headphone outs are so hot that I was getting a slight distortion almost no matter how low I turned everything down. I can't believe there aren't regular stereo outs on this thing, like you said. I think my best solution is to just take the headphone out and stick into my interface.

I want to try to avoid using MIDI, it's more of a mental thing. I think it has a pretty good piano sound, so I don't want to reduce it to just acting as an controller.
 
Mr Clean said:
I have a similar thing here and what I do is play into a vsti via midi, get it sounding as good as I can get it, sorting bummed notes, velocities, timing, etc and then play the midi back through the keyboard and record the sounds onto a new track via the headphone out into my soundcard.

If I didn't fanny about with the midi I'd just do the headphone out/soundcard bit and play/record. :thumbs up:
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Cool thanx man. Yeah, again, maybe a mental thing, but I don't want to correct anything MIDI-wise. I want all my tracks to be played and not quantized, moved, etc....I know nobody will know but me, but it's just the way I want to roll. I can play keyboards well enough to lay down parts. I did the "harpsichord" solo in real time for the Beatles "In My Life" (even though George Martin cheated to record it), so it's just a personal satisfaction thing for me to not ever use sequencers, loops, etc....

I think I'll end up going headphone out to interface.
 
Try a microphone on a guitar amp and an other one (LDC) at a distance, with the amp in a long reflective hall way. Mix to taste.
Listening for the right distance of the microphone placement could achieve some favorable results. :thumbs up: It worked out ok for me.

Or it could just plain suck like Paul said. In which cast ... I would just put a touch pad on each of the 88 keys of the Casio and run them into a sampler. :D
 
If the sound on the Yamaha is good, I would go headphone out, straight in, and MIDI and that way you could layer the sound or have the flexibility to use your MIDI data to underpin the sound and really get an even better sound.

If you DI it, you can always add in an AMP sim and beef it up. I do this a lot for various instruments that I want to create various version/sounds/??? cause I like to experiment, gives you many options.
 
Yeah, just use the headphone out to dual inputs on your AI. Casio cheapo-ed most of their keyboards that way. Only the WK series have separate lineouts.
 
moresound said:
Try a microphone on a guitar amp and an other one (LDC) at a distance, with the amp in a long reflective hall way. Mix to taste.
Listening for the right distance of the microphone placement could achieve some favorable results. :thumbs up: It worked out ok for me.

Or it could just plain suck like Paul said. In which cast ... I would just put a touch pad on each of the 88 keys of the Casio and run them into a sampler. :D
Click to expand...
:D I'll try that for sure. Thanx.

DM60 said:
If the sound on the Yamaha is good, I would go headphone out, straight in, and MIDI and that way you could layer the sound or have the flexibility to use your MIDI data to underpin the sound and really get an even better sound.

If you DI it, you can always add in an AMP sim and beef it up. I do this a lot for various instruments that I want to create various version/sounds/??? cause I like to experiment, gives you many options.
Click to expand...
I used to have a shit load of MIDI cables, now I can't find one. It's been too long since I used MIDI at all. I might buy one, though, just to see what other piano sounds are out there. I'm never going to use synth sounds, but a nice piano and organ can always come in handy.

jonny deep said:
One of these cables into your interface is worth a shot Hosa 3.5mm to Dual ¼in Jack Cable (CMP-159) 10ft.
Click to expand...
Yup, that's exactly what I've been using.

mjbphotos said:
Yeah, just use the headphone out to dual inputs on your AI. Casio cheapo-ed most of their keyboards that way. Only the WK series have separate lineouts.
Click to expand...

They're really stupid. The keyboard sounds pretty good, but it's as if they don't want anyone to record it. Idiots.
 
Seriously, you don't HAVE to quantize MIDI data, you can leave it just as it lies.

I'd get the MIDI working, play what you want to play, recording the MIDI and then find a better piano VST sound. I've got a Yamaha stage piano and none of its (piano) presets are really good enough to be in a recording. As long as you're not attempting Chopin, the Pianoteq demo version, even with its constraints, will get you something much better.
 
No, you're right. I might do that.

But why does everyone keep mentioning Yamaha? Mine's a Casio. :)
 
RAMI said:
No, you're right. I might do that.

But why does everyone keep mentioning Yamaha? Mine's a Casio. :)
Click to expand...

Might be my bad. Mines a yam and I mentioned it earlier. Get with the program everyone! ffs....
I hear you about the midi thing but I'd recommend trying just to see what's what.

I actually prefer using digidesigns piano synth with midi input over the line-out sound of my piano.
Since there's no quantize or anything like that, it sounds like just you played it in terms of timing etc. I never go near the notation on screen.
A couple of times it's been a life saver being able to switch from a classic sound to a grand sound at the click of a button. ;)
 
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