General help adding keyboard parts to pre-existing tracks

Audacity Help Forum Windows
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Greetings all. I apologize if many my questions have already been covered, but I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to computers, in general, and computer recording, in particular, and figured it would be best to start from scratch seeking information specific to my current set up. I have recorded extensively when I was younger on old Tascam tape recorders and worked a little bit with computers in the past (using N-Track for recording and Soundforge for editing). I liked N-Track because it was very simple and easy to use. I would just plug my keyboard into my laptop and press record. Fast forward to now. I recently got a new laptop (an Asus F555U, Core i5, Windows 10) and am trying to add some tracks (primarily keyboard tracks thus far although once I get the hang of it I would like to record guitars, vocals, etc. in the future) to a variety of music files a friend wishes me to record on. These tracks are in MP3 format but he wants me to send him the recordings I add separately as WAV files. This new laptop does not have N-Track, so my friend recommended I get Audacity instead (he said it would be as easy for me to use as N-Track was). He also recommended that I use a Presonus Audiobox device saying that it would sound better than plugging my keyboard directly into the computer (he said otherwise I would have latency issues). So I bought an Audiobox, downloaded Audacity 2.1.2, and have been having nothing but trouble thus far trying to figure it out, so I’m hoping you can help me with the issues I’ve been struggling with.

First, when I plug my keyboard (a Yamaha PSR-540) into the Audiobox (which is plugged into my laptop via USB input), I only seem to be able to record mono tracks. How do I rectify this?

Second, the input level coming from my keyboard in the tracks I add, aside from being mono, also seems very weak in comparison to the levels of the semi-finished tracks I am recording over. And when I try to raise the level in Audacity, the sound becomes distorted. Attempted to adjust the volume on the Audiobox and/or my keyboard leads to the Audiobox clipping light to flash. How do I rectify this? When I used to use N-Track back in the day without the Audiobox, I would just plug my keyboard directly into my old laptop and would easily be able to adjust the volume on my keyboard and in N-Track to get it to the perfect level. With this new set up (Audiobox and Audacity) I can only seem to record mono tracks and the levels are either too weak or distorted/clippy.

I apologize again if these seem like amateurish questions. I really am an amateur and am just trying to learn how to get the best quality, most professional sounding recordings I can possibly get. Any and all advice you more experienced folks might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everybody for taking the time to help me out.

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I don’t think you’re recording what you think you’re recording. How are you plugging the Yamaha into the Audiobox? My Yamahas do not have Stereo Line-Out (or digital sound), so I adapt the headphone output to my sound system/recorder.

Plug one 1/4" into the AudioBox Input 1 and the other into Input 2. Turn up both volume knobs on the front. That should give you your keyboard stereo voices in the recording.

Make sure Audacity is set to record Stereo.

Turn the Mixer knob to INPUT. If you start overdubbing, you’ll need that for zero-latency mix monitoring. That’s later.

Koz

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If you have tall but not jammed tall/clipping blue waves, then you are getting a good recording whether or not you can hear it. Audacity adds its own playback volume control to all the ones the computer already has. Make sure the speaker slider is all the way up.

I do not use the playback systems and adjustments in either Audacity or the computer because I have an external music system with its own controls.
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Koz

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Thank you, Koz, for your speedy reply. I do not have a splitter cable like the one you showed but was using a single 1/4 jack cable. I will purchase a splitter cable and give that a go.
How much does that external music system cost? And how would that interact with the Audio box?
Also, do you have any other general quick tips for obtaining the highest quality recordings possible?
Thanks again for all of your help and expertise. It is truly appreciated.

5

Most devices like the AudioBox are not mixers. Whatever you plug into #1 becomes Stereo Left and there isn’t much you can say about it. So to get actual stereo, you need to split the music into left and right and use both connections.

You didn’t say where you were getting the Yamaha sound from. Does yours have a stereo connection on the back? Some do.

My monitor system is a Hafler preamp (pictured), Crown power amplifier and Boston Acoustic speakers. I forget who made the bass cabinet. It was multi-hundreds of dollars, American. Much of it was left over from a sound support company. It’s important to note whatever you do is going to become your Quality Control. Your ability to judge your performance is never going to get any better than this system.

Koz

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He also recommended that I use a Presonus Audiobox device saying that it would sound better than plugging my keyboard directly into the computer (he said otherwise I would have latency issues).

it doesn’t hurt to have a good-quality audio interface. And if you have a laptop, you need something with line/instrument inputs.

latency is simply delay. It doesn’t affect recording quality. In fact, larger buffers (and the associated longer latency) can help to prevent “glitches” in the audio. However, if you are monitoring yourself it can make it difficult to perform so it can affect the quality of your performance. There is always some latency through the computer, although it can sometimes be minimized to an acceptable level.

Some interfaces have a direct monitoring option where the monitoring signal doesn’t pass through the computer. I don’t think your Presonus has that feature, but you can probably figure-out a way to listen to the keyboard directly while recording.

Second, the input level coming from my keyboard in the tracks I add, aside from being mono, also seems very weak in comparison to the levels of the semi-finished tracks I am recording over. And when I try to raise the level in Audacity, the sound becomes distorted.

If your friend is doing the mixing/mastering, let him take care of the “loudness”. :wink:

A real (acoustic) piano (or a realistic sounding digital piano) is very dynamic and it won’t sound as loud as a “screaming” electric guitar at the same peak level.

And… Almost all commercial recordings have some dynamic compression (i.e. Compressor effect) and limiting (Limiter effect) to boost the overall/average loudness without boosting/clipping the peaks. Modern pop & rap music has a TON of compression for that constantly-loud sound.

Also, mixing is done by summation. The peaks will increase when you mix and if the backing tracks are normalized/maximized you’ll have to reduce the levels to prevent clipping in the mix.

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Yamaha PSR-540

On another topic…

That’s a MIDI keyboard. With the appropriate software (not Audacity) you can record the MIDI and then you can change to a different virtual instrument after recording and/or move/correct/change notes etc. And, you can mix audio & MIDI.

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Thanks all for your suggestions. So far, I have just purchased the 1/4 jack Y splitter cable and will give that a go. The only input I have ever used on my keyboard was the headphone/input in the back. I don’t have any experience with using the MIDI functions. Would you recommend that as a better option than trying to record directly with the splitter cable?
As far as the dynamic compression and making the final tracks the highest quality possible, is that something I can do in Audacity? Or would I need different software or hardware to best accomplish that?

Thanks again to everyone for being so helpful to a new learner like myself.

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I don’t have any experience with using the MIDI functions. Would you recommend that as a better option than trying to record directly with the splitter cable?

MIDI may not be as useful as you think. MIDI is not sound. MIDI is machine control.

If you did connect the USB cable, it might go something like this:

You press a key on the keyboard. The keyboard makes no sound. The MIDI command for that key goes down the USB cable to the MIDI software in the computer. The MIDI software plays the musical note and records it (if it can).

The sound does not come from the keyboard. I used to connect my Yamaha to my Windows machine and “play” the CakeWalk MIDI software in the Windows machine from the keyboard. It works the other way, too. I can open up a MIDI song in my Windows machine and tell it to play the MIDI connection inside the Yamaha keyboard. In that case, I’d be sitting across the room with the computer, but the music is coming from the Yamaha keyboard with no human playing it.

I think it’s still true you can only play 16 instruments in one MIDI pass.

My Yamaha has some very nice instruments built-in, but if I play the MIDI software inside my computer and the MIDI software has ratty instruments, I’m going to record the ratty instruments, not the Yamaha.

You can also have near misses. If instrument number 327 is a Ukrainian flugelhorn inside the Yamaha, but number 327 is a piano in the MIDI software, I’m going to get the piano. And that’s one of the tricks you can do with MIDI. Nowhere is it written you have to use the instrument composed into a MIDI song. It’s trivial in CakeWalk to change the instrument but leave the keypress alone. You can play a piano concerto on an accordion.

All that is cool and terrific to mess with, but it would make my brain bleed trying to figure out how to overdub with MIDI. Overdubbing depends on single, stable sound pathways so the instruments line up one after the other as you play them. With a stable computer system, it is perfectly possible to be a string quartet—by yourself.

Given you’re going to want the high quality instruments in your Yamaha, I suspect recording the headphone connection is the way to go.

You will be listening to the Audiobox headphone connection. The Mixer control on the front fades between Audacity playback of existing tracks and your live performance. Please know that the instant you decide to use a live microphone for anything, you need to be on headphones for overdubbing. Otherwise you can use speakers.

Koz