Hooking up your keyboard to a PC (Recording)

As I promised... here's an easy way of connecting your keyboard with your PC for your recording session. This way you'll record a .wav file which you can edit or convert to mp3.

So, first, you'll obviously need a PC, a keyboard and a cable to connect them together. It's just a plain audio cable you can get in every small audio shop.

http://www.box.net/shared/z65071x1zg

On the back of your PC you will find 3-colored slots (or 6 if you have
a 7.1 card system). (as above).
Green - Line out (you probably have your PC speakers plugged in here)
Blue - Line in (this is where you'll connect your keyboard in a few minutes)
Pink - Microphone input

Now, take the audio cable and plug it in your keyboard. For example, in your earphones output

http://www.box.net/shared/01cdjzhimt
The other side of the cable goes to your PC's Line in

http://www.box.net/shared/rxejf806as

All you have to do now is set up your sound card to record from the Line in input.

Go to Control Panel and double-click on Sounds and Audio devices

Click on Advanced in the first window

http://www.box.net/shared/7s5edhl70a

Then click on Options>Properties which will open another window

http://www.box.net/shared/rjpuglslah

Select Recording and click on OK. Another (yea yea... i know ) window will pop up and there you'll setup your input. Put a "tick" next to Line in
and play with the volume level. (You'll se the peak meter jump up in your
recording software when you play something. If it's too high - lower the volume).

And that's about it. If you have any questions left - feel free to fire away

Nice... thats the way I used to do it, but there was a ton of latency with my computer so i got an mbox, which is way legit.

I have no such problems. Both my PC and laptop work fine this way

Yeah, my laptop for some reason is really noisy. My PC is not, but its in a different room than all of my keyboards so I don't really use it for recording. I might be getting a new laptop though because mine just totally crapped out on me.
Do you know if you can record stereo using that single input jack, or is it just mono?
Also, what program are you using?

If you mean stereo as both speakers then yes... if you mean "real stereo" then you'd have to twingle with the channels in your recorded channels...

I'm using n-Track studio and Soundforge

Hi.

I know it may sound dum, but I have never done this before. What wire do I use to go from the headphone to the Line In port on my sound card? I used a wire that used to connect my speakers, it fit both ends just fine, and I got sound through my computer speakers, and I could record it. Problem was, it was very quite. I turned up the keyboard full, and the speakers up full, and I could hear it just fine, but when it got more complicated than say, pressing three or four keys at once, the sound got really distorted.

Anyone else getting this problem? I tried it on the laptop, but that only got Mic in and headphone out, so not much luck there...

Maybe I'm using the wrong wire?

try to boost your input level in the recording window

http://www.box.net/shared/7s5edhl70a

Murphy, for one thing you can't use speaker wire (cable) to run an audio sound source, unless the cabling is shielded TRS/XLR type speaker wire it will introduce noise, artifact...seems to me that comp plug ins are 1/8" type jacks, so this would mean running 1/4" to 1/8" (shielded cable)?? You are using the wrong wire.

I got no idea about TRS/XLR or whatever that is, sorry, I'm a total beginner.

I just noticed the wire that connected my monitor's inbuilt speakers to the sound card, also fit in the headphone port on the keyboard (after using an adaptor thingy)

I got no idea what kind of wire it is, all I know its green at both ends and its the same size as a standard headphone jack on a hi-fi, on in this case, a keyboard.

Could someone point me in the right direction as to what wire(s) I need to be using.

Thanks for all the help.

For going from headphones-out to your basic soundcard, I think the cable you're using should be fine Murphy. Have you tried increasing your input volume like Sysryn suggested? If you've jacked those settings up and your recording is still too quiet, you could try increasing the recorded sound file's volume in your sound recording/editing program. In Audacity, for instance, you could try Effect->Amplify.

Then to get rid of the distortion you just need to turn down each volume setting (on your keyboard, the line in setting, and your speakers) until it's as loud as it will go without adding any distortion.