Recording on Yamaha DGX 660

[ladyfingers]

Good afternoon -

I've figured out how to record to my keyboard's internal memory, and I've figured out how to record to the jump drive. What I want to do is record a song using a minimum of 2 layers and transfer it to my iPad, and then use Garage Band (or another program) to manipulate each layer. According to the manual, I can either record in MIDI or as a .wav file, but I believe if I record as a .wav file, it flattens it so its not editable. Am I on track here? Anyone? And then I guess my next question is how do I get it to my iPad. There is a wireless accessory - a Yamaha UD-WL01 USB Wireless LAN Adaptor for iOS Devices - is that what I need?

Thanks much for your help.

Brenda

 

[tjw]

DAW programs, such as Audacity and Cakewalk, have capability to perform editing of some types upon .wav files. These .wav files can be imported into the DAW software. I'm not familiar with Garage Band but I'm making an assumption these same basic capabilities would be present in that software.

You are "on track", however. The degree to which your music can be edited is much greater in the MIDI format. You can change virtually every parameter, such as the note itself, its duration, its velocity, its timing, of each and every note, the "patch" (instrument sound)......

I'm going to recommend that you record your music directly with the DAW you intend to use. It creates a much smoother workflow, and your playing can then be edited with a high degree of granularity.

I'm going to defer the specific hardware questions to some of the folks here who are familiar with iPad. My background has been all in the MS-DOS/Windows continuum.

I see that the DGX-660 instrument has a USB-to-Host connection. My guess is that this port could be used with an iPad USB connector cable, but this is pure speculation on my part. Some other folks here can help you better.

 

[ladyfingers]

DAW programs, such as Audacity and Cakewalk, have capability to perform editing of some types upon .wav files. These .wav files can be imported into the DAW software. I'm not familiar with Garage Band but I'm making an assumption these same basic capabilities would be present in that software.

You are "on track", however. The degree to which your music can be edited is much greater in the MIDI format. You can change virtually every parameter, such as the note itself, its duration, its velocity, its timing, of each and every note, the "patch" (instrument sound)......

I'm going to recommend that you record your music directly with the DAW you intend to use. It creates a much smoother workflow, and your playing can then be edited with a high degree of granularity.

I'm going to defer the specific hardware questions to some of the folks here who are familiar with iPad. My background has been all in the MS-DOS/Windows continuum.

I see that the DGX-660 instrument has a USB-to-Host connection. My guess is that this port could be used with an iPad USB connector cable, but this is pure speculation on my part. Some other folks here can help you better.

Thank you so much!. I guess my next question is - once you edit in MIDI, how do you get it back to the "pretty" sound?

Brenda

 

[happyrat1]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=multitrack+recording+on+ipad

Gary

 

[ladyfingers]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=multitrack+recording+on+ipad

Gary

Thank you!!!!

 

[happyrat1]

You just have to learn to ask the right questions dear. Google and Youtube are your best friends in the whole world.

Gary

 

[ladyfingers]

You just have to lean to ask the right questions dear. Google and Youtube are your best friends in the whole world.

Gary

Apparently!

 

[tjw]

I'm not sure what you mean by "the pretty sound"....

How I go about it is to record my playing into the DAW MIDI track. One scenario is that I intend to use the sound produced by my keyboard (Yamaha CVP-105) to be "played" again by the DAW. So the sound I get when playing my DAW recording is precisely the same one I heard while playing for the recording.

I set the patch in the DAW to automatically send MIDI signals to my keyboard when it begins to play. These MIDI signals cause the sound that I used when recording to be set up on the keyboard.

Another possible scenario is that I intend to use the sound from a sample-player or "soft synthesizer" which resides and executes on the computer. I set the DAW MIDI track to "echo" my playing from the MIDI track input (being driven by the keyboard) to the MIDI track output, and the soft synth input to receive this MIDI track output. I can then hear the sound of the soft synth or sample player in "real time" while I play the keyboard for my recording.
Similarly as if I used a keyboard sound, the soft synth or sample player will be set up when my recording plays back to use the same patch, MIDI channel, and synth that I used for the recording.

I can now go back and edit the MIDI information. My preferred method is to use the "staff view" of the DAW, I can see the notes and rhythms I played in standard music notation, while the piece is playing back. I can stop, make changes, preview, use various kinds of filters such as quantization (I play with some hiccups), adjust volume, rhythmic foot, accenting, and use "automation" to record the changes. When my piece plays back, all of the changes, adjustments, and "mixing" I've done operates upon the recorded MIDI data in real-time, just as if I were manipulating controls myself.

When all my embellishment and refinement is completed, the playback of my DAW file will contain all of the work I've done, the playing, the editing, the mixing, and will output the result through either my keyboard or through the computer speakers (or both). If I'm satisfied with what the keyboard output is, I then record the stereo outputs from the keyboard to a stereo Audio track in the DAW and then, I can save a "master" of all sounds of the piece.

I then use the "staff view" of the DAW to write background vocals, and call a singer to come and record them for me.

 

[happyrat1]

Personally I usually start by recording a drum track into my DAW in MIDI format.

Then I'll add layer upon layer of MIDI tracks (bass, strings, lead, etc.)

Do my edits on the MIDI notes (Also a sloppy player)

Then play back the whole sheboom thru my mixer, adjust the effects and EQ and mixer parameters to my liking, then record the whole thing by playing back thru the mixer to the sound card input on my computer, then subsequently convert the resulting WAV file to MP3 for the final product.

This requires both Audio AND MIDI data connections to my computer from my gear.

Your mileage may vary depending on what you have to work with.

Upshot is that there is no ONE accepted way to record a multitrack recording.

It will take time and trial and error to find a method that works best for you.

Gary

 

[ladyfingers]

I'm not sure what you mean by "the pretty sound"....

How I go about it is to record my playing into the DAW MIDI track. One scenario is that I intend to use the sound produced by my keyboard (Yamaha CVP-105) to be "played" again by the DAW. So the sound I get when playing my DAW recording is precisely the same one I heard while playing for the recording.

I set the patch in the DAW to automatically send MIDI signals to my keyboard when it begins to play. These MIDI signals cause the sound that I used when recording to be set up on the keyboard.

Another possible scenario is that I intend to use the sound from a sample-player or "soft synthesizer" which resides and executes on the computer. I set the DAW MIDI track to "echo" my playing from the MIDI track input (being driven by the keyboard) to the MIDI track output, and the soft synth input to receive this MIDI track output. I can then hear the sound of the soft synth or sample player in "real time" while I play the keyboard for my recording.
Similarly as if I used a keyboard sound, the soft synth or sample player will be set up when my recording plays back to use the same patch, MIDI channel, and synth that I used for the recording.

I can now go back and edit the MIDI information. My preferred method is to use the "staff view" of the DAW, I can see the notes and rhythms I played in standard music notation, while the piece is playing back. I can stop, make changes, preview, use various kinds of filters such as quantization (I play with some hiccups), adjust volume, rhythmic foot, accenting, and use "automation" to record the changes. When my piece plays back, all of the changes, adjustments, and "mixing" I've done operates upon the recorded MIDI data in real-time, just as if I were manipulating controls myself.

When all my embellishment and refinement is completed, the playback of my DAW file will contain all of the work I've done, the playing, the editing, the mixing, and will output the result through either my keyboard or through the computer speakers (or both). If I'm satisfied with what the keyboard output is, I then record the stereo outputs from the keyboard to a stereo Audio track in the DAW and then, I can save a "master" of all sounds of the piece.

I then use the "staff view" of the DAW to write background vocals, and call a singer to come and record them for me.

Well ... I have a lot of learning and YouTube watching to get anywhere near where you are. My first step is to take this brand new iPad Pro out of the box and get it registered and set up. I'll be back and thank you for such a detailed explanation!

Brenda

 

[tjw]

I wish that I could be more helpful with iPad and Garage Band, but I have no experience with them.

Please feel welcome to come and get every bit you can from us.

Music for worship is very close to my heart. I'd love to help you if I can. I'm going to watch the videos myself, perhaps I may get somewhat more prepared.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I have GarageBand for iPad, although I don't use it much, so I can try to help with simple GarageBand questions.

 

[happyrat1]

Something to shoot for...

Gary

 

[ladyfingers]

I have GarageBand for iPad, although I don't use it much, so I can try to help with simple GarageBand questions.

Thank you. I'm starting from square 1 - I actually just set up a new iPad Pro last night and looked around Garage Band a bit. I need to watch some YouTubes to figure out how to get a .wav file imported into the program. I'll be back with questions!

 

[SeaGtGruff]

You might want to consider installing a cloud storage app such as Dropbox. There are many cloud storage services-- including iCloud, which you should already have free space on through your Apple account-- so you don't need a third-party service such as Dropbox, but my philosophy is that every little bit helps! That is, you get a certain amount of free space with iCloud, but chances are you'll want to use that for backing up your iPad's data. And you get a certain amount of free space with OneDrive (if you have a Windows computer and have a free Microsoft account). And you can get a certain amount of free space with Dropbox and most other third-party cloud services. So I use iCloud for backing up my two iPads, OneDrive for storing documents I've created with Office Online, and Dropbox for most everything else.

Anyway, what you might need to do in order to import a WAV file into GarageBand is to first of all put the WAV file somewhere that GarageBand can load it from, such as iCloud or OneDrive or Dropbox. These services are very handy for transferring files between multiple computers or other devices-- for instance, with Dropbox on your computer you can just save a WAV file to your Dropbox folder, then it will be copied to other computers or devices that you've got Dropbox installed on (or iCloud, or OneDrive, etc.).

 

[ladyfingers]

You might want to consider installing a cloud storage app such as Dropbox. There are many cloud storage services-- including iCloud, which you should already have free space on through your Apple account-- so you don't need a third-party service such as Dropbox, but my philosophy is that every little bit helps! That is, you get a certain amount of free space with iCloud, but chances are you'll want to use that for backing up your iPad's data. And you get a certain amount of free space with OneDrive (if you have a Windows computer and have a free Microsoft account). And you can get a certain amount of free space with Dropbox and most other third-party cloud services. So I use iCloud for backing up my two iPads, OneDrive for storing documents I've created with Office Online, and Dropbox for most everything else.

Anyway, what you might need to do in order to import a WAV file into GarageBand is to first of all put the WAV file somewhere that GarageBand can load it from, such as iCloud or OneDrive or Dropbox. These services are very handy for transferring files between multiple computers or other devices-- for instance, with Dropbox on your computer you can just save a WAV file to your Dropbox folder, then it will be copied to other computers or devices that you've got Dropbox installed on (or iCloud, or OneDrive, etc.).

I do have a DropBox account and also have songs loaded in iCloud. I was tinkering with Garage Band last night and I could see my songs, but they were greyed out and it wouldn't let me import. I'm sure I missed a step somewhere.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

It might be that you are not allowed to load copyrighted songs into GarageBand? I don't know.

 

[ladyfingers]

It might be that you are not allowed to load copyrighted songs into GarageBand? I don't know.

It's a song I recorded on my keyboard so no worries on copyright. I actually figured out how to get it in GarageBand and can play it but now I don't know what to do with it. lol Sitting here watching tutorials and am getting sleepy because I am totally lost. It's a .wav file with two layers and I'd hoped to be able to edit them separately but am thinking I either can't, or I haven't come across the tutorial I need. I also saved it as a MIDI file - maybe that's the one I need to import?

Thanks for your help!

Brenda

 

[tjw]

Could somebody tell me what is meant by "layers" of a .wav file ?

Did the layers only exist on the keyboard, or is there some mechanism of the .wav file which can accommodate layers ?

I have never attempted to do what you're wanting. I don't even know (as evidenced above) how the .wav file contains layers.

Perhaps this refers to 2 stereo channels (which the .wav file can contain)

When I am ready to "mix", I have each "layer" (if I'm understanding this right ? ) as a separate .wav file. I import each .wav file into a separate track on the DAW. I then have independent control of each part, either manually, or through automation.

Perhaps this refers to 2 stereo channels (which the .wav file can contain).... in which case, your DAW may have the ability to "bounce" one channel onto a separate track.....

Maybe other folks here have more knowledge of this, and can suggest a method useful to you.

 

[ladyfingers]

Could somebody tell me what is meant by "layers" of a .wav file ?

Did the layers only exist on the keyboard, or is there some mechanism of the .wav file which can accommodate layers ?

I recorded a song using two voices - piano, and then as it played back, I added strings, so that's the two layers. I then record it to a jump drive built into my keyboard and saved it as a .wav file, and then transfer the .wav file to my computer (via the jump drive) where I upload it to iCloud, then back to my iPad (there's probably a better way but I haven't figured it out yet). Once I opened it in Garage Band on my iPad, it only had one layer. However, after I posted, I went back and saved it from the keyboard to the jump drive as a MIDI file, and when I opened it, there were two layers - piano and strings. YAY! I was so happy, but now I have no clue what to do or what it needs (probably someone playing with more talent ), so more YouTubing.

It's like when I first started photography using a DSLR around 20 years ago - I thought my pictures looked great until I discovered Photoshop and how they could be enhanced. I'm sure someone who knows what they're listening to could listen and know exactly what it needs, but I'm just not there yet.

The main reason I'm wanting to learn this is so I can make slide shows using my recorded music with my photos - I just want my music to sound the best that it can. I'll never be at the level of playing and recording songs like I've heard here, so my needs are pretty simple.