Recording music on a Digital Piano?

[Eddie Bear]

Hello there!

I'll cut to it, I'm far from adept when it comes to music tech. All I want to do is make music similar to the likes of Sigur Ros & M83.

I have a digital piano & a 10 year old Dell.
The piano is a Roland 700GX & my Dell runs on XP.
I also have a Scarlette 2i2 Soundcard thing which I got for Christmas! (And have no idea how to set up)

Basically, I'm looking for a simplified, step by step explanation on what steps to take in order to get this ball rolling.

Hope you guys can help! Thanks a million.

 

[DM60]

OK, the 2i2 doesn't have MIDI In/Out, so you're going to have to probably use a USB/MIDI converter if you want to record MIDI notes.

Next, the 2i2 should have drivers for WinXP, need to get that set up and working.

Settle in on a DAW, so you can record multi tracks.

You can record the MIDI notes for VST's via the MIDI cable, and the sounds from the keyboard via the 2i2's analog connection.

If you want to do vocals with it, you will need a mic, since the 2i2 has phantom power and XLR, you are covered there.

That should get you started, there are still some questions you will have, but in its simplest terms, that is a short check list.

 

[mjbphotos]

Rather than MIDI (which you probably don't know about anyway), you can record the AUDIO output of the Roland, using the 2i2.

First do some reading - all the threads that are stickyed at the top of this section of the forum. Like DM60 said, you'll need a DAW (recording software), so you've got to learn how to operate that first.

 

[DM60]

It is daunting at first. But be patient, get to one step, when ready, come here, read, then ask, go to the next. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. We will help you get there.

 

[ecc83]

Hi Eddie,
I have downloaded the manual for that Roland "piano". Piece Of Kit! If you can master one TENTH of what that can do, sorting out a PC and recording will be like turning beer into water.

Shame that Scarlet AI does not have MIDI (orta be a law IMO!) any chance you could trade it in ? The Steinberg UR22 is better in many respects, has MIDI and comes with Cubase which is the MIDI persons best friend.

However it LOOKS as tho' that keyboard will play MIDI out to a computer via usb but even if not, you can "compose" on the Roland's internal sequencer and then dump the files via usb. Read everything carefully and download all drivers and files before you start (I would dump them on the desktop pro-tem.)

There are of course two jack sockets that can feed the LINE (not "instrument") inputs of the 2i2 but, search as I may I cannot find any levels mentioned for these outputs. This is a bit important because the 2i2 is known to have a poor overload capacity but you can back off the feed level with the keyboard's slider volume control. There are also two XLR sockets but you won't want to mess with those at this stage (balanced and almost certainly "pro" level of +4dBu, too hot for that lil' Scarlet I'll be bound) .

Eddie,there is another thread here about getting sounds recorded from a digital Joe. Maybe you could PM and swap horror stories? (and MIDI files!)

Dave.