recording Keyboard/Synth?

[Sickfest]

G'day,
I've just got a few questions regarding recording keyboard/synth:-

Is there any difference in recording in stereo from 1 line out OR separate L and R line outs on a keyboard synthesiser? eg, Casio CTK900 only has 1 headphone/lineout on it and the Casio WK 3700 has separate Left and Right line outs.

There is a $200 AUD price diff. between the two and I was wondering if It's worth paying the extra money for the L&R separate line outs?

Should I even worry about recording keyboard in stereo or should I just record in mono?? I'm guessing stereo would be the way to go?

Any help very much appreciated.

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

You can record with the headphone outputs. They can be much hotter (louder, more voltage) than a line signal, so keep the headphone volume low (off) when you're hooking it up and turn it up slowly.

The separate line outs will have better quality, though. Headphone outs tend to be noisier than lineouts. It may not be a significant difference, though.

Strero comes in really handy for some sounds- particularly violin and horn sections, big spacey pads, and sound effects. If you're planning on using sounds that like to be in stereo then you may want to save up for the board with the L/R outs.

Take care,
Chris

 

[Sickfest]

Thanks

Great, thanks.

I think based on your reply I would lean towards getting the separate line outs since I would have a slightly better quality recording.

Would I also have a lot more freedom when recording Left and Right to separate tracks? or could I also do that with the headphone using a cable to split the two channels?

hope I've got that right.

Thanks again Chris.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

There is a $200 AUD price diff. between the two and I was wondering if It's worth paying the extra money for the L&R separate line outs?

Is it worth paying $200 for a pair of outs? Probably not . Is it worth paying an extra $200 for a pair of outs plus whatever other quality differences the larger model offers? Quite possibly.

I'm not familiar with the Casio models you mention, but I can say that *in general*, there is often a signifigant difference in the quality of actual keyboard sound between "self contained" models not intended to be hooked up to anything else (i.e. models with no line outs or MIDI outs), and those designed to be jacked into external gear, and those differences are often worth it.

Either way, you're right, you can record either to a single stereo track in your DAW or to dual mono tracks. Both will work fine. Usually, though, the only reason you'd want to record a stereo keyboard source to dual mono tracks is if you have different intentions as to what you want to do with them. Otherwise it's often simply easier in workflow to keep the stereo instrument as a single stereo track.

Then again, either way you're necessarily stuck with your tracking decision, either. It's easy enough in most editors to split a stereo track into dual mono tracks down the road if you need to, and vice versa.

G.

 

[Sickfest]

Thanks SouthSIDE glen,

I'm going to fork out the extra dough and go with the more options option.
I think I was just tryin to find an excuse to buy it anyway.

I didn't mean what I said about the separate tracks. I meant to write 'separate line inputs' into the DAW and then I would link them to a stereo track. Thanks for correcting me. I'm still green in the world of recording, but I think I'm getting there.

Thanks again for all the helpful info in both posts. Much appreciated.