Recording through Keyboard/Piano

Special Interest Groups Recording Techniques
1

I hooked up my Yamaha PSR 273 to my comp, into a USB port.

How would I record directly from my keyboard/piano into my computer (no mic)

2

Hi,

I assume you want to record audio and not MIDI. To do this, connect a line out from your headphone jack (that’s what we use on our Yamaha DGX-205, so I assume yours is similar) on your keyboard and plug into the line-in on your computer, open Audacity, select line-in on your mixer toolbar, hit record and start playing. Be sure to check your levels to avoid clipping. To record a MIDI song from your keyboard that you want to convert to audio, follow the same steps, except , instead of just playing, select your song on the keyboard, hit record in Audacity and then hit the play button on your keyboard.

Good Luck

Bud

3

Hey, I have the same question. But the above quote was from '07. Audacity must have been updated since that time, I don’t see an option for “line in” in Audacity. (Version 2.5, I think.) Could you post an updated reply, if one is necessary? Perhaps I just overlooked it.
Thanks,
-John

4

Whether or not your computer has a “Line In” depends on your computer, not on Audacity.
Most full size computers have a microphone input (Mic In) and a “line level” stereo input (Line In). If you are using a full size computer, have a look for what connections are available on the back.

Most laptop computers have only a mono microphone input, which is not suitable for recording a keyboard because the keyboard signal level is far too high.
Some laptop computers have a combined microphone / stereo line in.

I’ve no idea what connections your computer has, but if you are using a laptop then the recording input (whatever type) is likely to be fairly low quality. The usual solution for recording a keyboard on a laptop computer is to use an external USB sound card that has stereo line level inputs. The USB device that I use is a Behringer UCA 202 (about $30).

If you use a USB sound card (audio device), connect the device to the computer and allow Windows a few moments to recognise it before you launch Audacity. The USB device should then be listed in the device toolbar.