Why does my good keyboard sound bad when recorded?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Armistice
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Armistice

Armistice

Son of Yoda
Hi there - I have a Yamaha P80 piano, which sounds excellent through headphones and not bad through a mixer/amp/speakers. I've made the assumption that all I needed to do to get the thing to sound decent on a hard disk recorder (Yamaha AW4416) was to plug the line outs into the line ins and away we go...

Not so - when I do this I have a really hot signal that peaks easily - even when I get that under control with the trim pots the resultant sound is just awful. It's difficult to describe, but it just ain't close to being what I hear through headphones - very harsh and unmusical indeed.

Is there something blindingly obvious (hey, I'm a guitarist, not a keyboard player!) that I'm missing here?

Any suggestions would be most helpful - very annoying to have nice pieces of gear that don't talk to each other properly!

Cheers

David
 
sounds like you set the gain of the piano input too high....

I had a similar problem with my church system when I set the gain of the keyboard too high on the power mixer....

actually line signal need minimal gain.... at your piano channel, try putting the gain at zero and set the fader all the way up.... see how it sounds....
 
First off, don't crank the volume from the keyboard. Set it at about half. Second, make sure you're using the right ouputs for recording. You mentioned "line out" so I'm going to assume you have this part right already.

Is there a roll off switch on the back of the keyboard? I have such a switch on some of my older boards, but I do not know if anyone still practices this inovation or not. If so, set it for the lowest setting.

Does your multitrack have a built in preamp? If there are any channels without preamps in them go for those. It's not a microphone or a guitar, it's an active component and is going to send a hot signal to your recorder.

Hope that any of the above helps you.

Carl
 
Thanks guys, I'll try out your suggestions - also try bypassing the recorder preamps to see what sort of signal I get.

Cheers

David
 
Could be your cable too. Cables can have a surprisingly major effect on recording. Try swapping for a different one and see what happens.
 
Yo Arms:

Caught that you are using the Yam 2816. Don't know how you could get a "bad" signal unless you are feeding the box the wrong way, as per the suggestions already suggested.

I have a DX-7 synth, and a Korg SP 100 which both come through the 2816 very well.

Do you overcrank the mic pre on the 2816? The 2816 has a lot of headroom but if you push the signal, you get a squacky sound for sure.

Cables? Yeah, they could cause you some trouble. But, mostly they would short out or cause static or not work at all.

Suggest you re-read the 2816 manual and make sure you are inputing the signal correctly.

Green Hornet:D :D :p :p :p :p :cool:
 
I think it might have to do with how many bits the keyboard is generating. If its a sucky keyboard(I dont know) then its probably gonna have some bad computer noise in the signal. Ya get my drift? Is this whats happening?
 
I found my keyboard sounding a bit "tinny" and light when plugged directly into my mixer, so I tried a guitar DI box!

Problem solved... nicer fuller sound. Give it a shot.
 
Also, do you have any unknown inserted effects or dynamics on your Yammie inputs? This happens to me sometimes, that I've forgotten to turn off a particular effect.
 
Yo Arms:

I transposed your 4416 into a 2816; however, the answer is the same.

You must be doing something wrong if you are not getting a good signal or a good sound when you play it back.

You can use a DI or a mic pre but the pres on my 2816 are pretty good; however, I still, on occasion, use my ART mic pre for certain things.

Something is awry somewhere. ???

Green Hornet




:D :D :p :p :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
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