Record from 1/4" stereo headphone jack on the cheap

A

ahiller

New member
Hello everyone, and thank you for weighing in on this. I feel like the answer to this should be obvious, but I'm stymied (and I'm not a Home Recording enthusiast with a lot of fancy equipment).

30 years ago I created a vast library of music using Finale and specific to the MIDI voices of a top-of-the-line (and now totally obsolete) Yamaha keyboard (PSR-300M for those that care). This keyboard has NOTHING on the back except MIDI ports (which are used by Finale) and a single 1/4" stereo headphone jack. I thought the whole library was lost but recently stumbled on it and discovered that a later version of Finale can actually decode and play the music... so long as I use the exact same Yamaha (which I still had in storage).

What I would like to do is record the music I created into MP3, but the only way to capture it would be that headphone jack. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on this project because it will probably be done in a few hours and then whatever equipment I bought will get tossed... so does anyone know the obvious way of capturing the audio from the headphone jack?

One possible complicating factor: Finale consumes a lot of resources, and I am not sure whether the PC will allow Finale to send the MIDI and Audacity to capture it at the same time. So while I am not opposed to trying, it might be better for the capture device to be standalone instead of Windows driven.
 
MIDI is very very tiny in PC processing terms so I doubt it will be an issue at all in extra load. The simplest system would be a stereo or 2 mono DI boxes to give you a mic level output - assuming you have an interface, but before you try that, if your interface has two jacks for line level input, then a simple cable will do the trick in most cases. I suppose the test will be to try Finale playing the keyboard and audacity recording at the same time - it will work, or not. I don't know how hungry Finale is of system resources.

If you have a proper interface, it should be easy. If you have to use the computer sound card, then a simple cable might still work for you - audio quality on the cheapo computer sound card/on board chip is quite variable.
 
I'd be tempted to find samples that replicate the sounds of your keyboard and rebuild the audio "in the box" without passing it through a questionable hardware signal path. But maybe there's something about what you're doing that I don't quite get.
 
Thank you for the replies.

@rob aylestone What kind of simple cable are you referring to? A cable from the keyboard's headphone jack to the PC's microphone jack? I did actually try that (1/4" stereo to 1/8" stereo) and got no response.

@bouldersoundguy I would love to do that if this were going any further than simply downloading, but that would be an incredible task at this point. Finale is pulling from 20+ voices per piece, and not always the same between pieces. (Plus, I feel like there would be a great learning curve for me there)
 
Yeah, I get that. I just think the result would sound better. Also, if you do capture from the Yamaha, capture a good quality WAVE file, then convert to MP3 later. MP3 is a lossy format. You might lose something you can't recover. I'd suggest capturing to 48 kHz, 24 bit WAVE. I'm sure there's some kind of batch MP3 encoder you can use to do the whole collection at once.
 
The words "Pc's microphone jack" kind of set the quality threshold here - the microphone jack is usually pretty naff. Can you lay your hands on something that records well? On my MacBook - a stereo 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, with a 3.5mm to ¼" headphone adaptors actually works reasonably well. PCs are less accepting of high levels through their socket - so you really need an interface which ups the quality so much - but will cost you between 60-100 minimum, but allow the best quality.

The quality issue isn't quite as tricky because the quality of the Yamaha is kind of a little er, compromised. Nice sounds, but usually a little hissy and tinny. I'd see if you can borrow some kind of audio recorder - a zoom or similar and use that to record the Yamaha's output.
 
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