piano sounds great going in, lousy in Audacity

[Jim Robbins]

The piano sounds great when I'm recording it, but lousy when i play it back in Audacity. (muted, not much 'presence' or vibrancy). I'm recording my Roland KF-90 piano using an Alesis USB 4-channel mixer. I've tried tweaking the EQ on the mixer, and using the Equalization effect in Audacity. Not much help.
Any ideas?

[Trebor]

Like what Steve says below :

if you are not comparing like-with-like, say comparing the keyboard performance via headphones with playback via computer speakers,
then the lack of vibrancy on playback may not be an Audacity problem but due to the characteristics of the different amplifiers and transducers involved.

[steve]

Exactly how are you recording it? What's your method and what equipment are you using? Are you DI'ing the piano or recording with a microphone? How are you listening when it sounds good? How are you listening when it sounds bad?

[Jim Robbins]

Thanks, Trebor. I recorded it at 96,000 HZ. It's odd, because the rhythm track and the synth/strings track came out fine. It's just the piano that sounds dull. Here's the link to the recording: http://www.snapdrive.net/files/372235/S ... 0score.mp3

[Jim Robbins]

Hey Steve -- I'm recording the piano straight into the Alesis USB 4-channel mixer (right and left channels going into two channels on the Alesis). When I record and listen, I'm using Grado 225 headphones -- killer phones. The Alesis mixer is hooked up to my laptop by USB. Any thoughts?

[Trebor]

It's odd, because the rhythm track and the synth/strings track came out fine. It's just the piano that sounds dull. Here's the link to the recording: http://www.snapdrive.net/files/372235/S ... 0score.mp3

The piano sounds distorted at 1min 20 seconds ...

Podcast score @ 1min 20sec piano is distorted-level too high.mp3

(204.08 KiB) Downloaded 338 times

I think this is a mixer level problem and not due to Audacity.

[Jim Robbins]

Thanks, Trebor -- I noticed the distortion, too. (sounded like a pop). However, why does the overall piano come across dull? I tried tweaking the high-end EQ on the mixer and on the piano and it didn't help much. Not much presence and vibrancy.

Do you thinking adjusting down the mixer levels will make a difference in the quality/vibrancy of the piano sound?

[Irish]

I'm recording the piano straight into the Alesis USB 4-channel mixer (right and left channels going into two channels on the Alesis).

Try using only the "L/Mono" output into one channel on the Alesis, and see does that make a difference.

You should also record at a lower level, to avoid the distortion that you've got at the moment. You can amplify it later in Audacity if you want.

PO'L

[Jim Robbins]

Thanks, Irish. I'll give that a shot.

[steve]

The entire track has a cut-off not much over 15kHz, which seems a little strange, even for an MP3. 48000Hz/224kbps should give frequencies to over 18kHz.
Where/when is the frequency being limited, or is that just the band-width of the drum machine?

Have you got a recording of the piano, on it's own, completely dry (no effects and flat Eq)? Perhaps you could post a few seconds in WAV format (48kHz will be fine)