Has anyone recorded digital keyboard stereo tracks with Audacity?

[Humanguy]

That's what I'm doing now, recording my keyboard's stereo outs to Audacity as my rhythm tracks. Just wondering if anyone here has done that, maybe knows some things to do or not to do in that situation.

[DVDdoug]

Yes, lots of people do that but you'll need an audio interface or soundcard with line inputs. (The mic input is not correct.)

[kozikowski]

Unless you have an older MacBook Pro or modern Mac Mini with stereo analog inputs...



...don't use the built-in sound connections.

And even if you do, if you're planning on overdubbing, you'll need an external "soundcard" to keep all the sound pathways straight.



That's my Behringer UCA-202 set up for overdubbing. I don't recommend Apple Earbuds for music production, but they were available for the picture shoot.

We are assuming you're going to record the Headphone or Line-Out connections of your keyboard. If your keyboard has a USB connection, then that's almost certainly for MIDI. That's machine control, not music. Audacity can't do overdubbing or music production with MIDI.

Koz

[kozikowski]

digital keyboard stereo tracks with Audacity?

Can I predict the past? You have a MIDI-only keyboard with no other connections and you want to record the music. That came up once before on the forum. One way is to connect the keyboard to your computer and make the keyboard run the MIDI Music software in the computer. Then set Audacity to record "Music Playing On The Computer."

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tut ... puter.html

MIDI keyboards don't make music. They make instructions so something else can make music. Your job is tell Audacity how to record that something else.

Koz

[Humanguy]

Yes, lots of people do that but you'll need an audio interface or soundcard with line inputs. (The mic input is not correct.)

Yes, I have the keyboard going into my mixer which goes into the interface which goes into the computer. I just got a new one, the SSL 2.

[Humanguy]

Unless you have an older MacBook Pro or modern Mac Mini with stereo analog inputs...



...don't use the built-in sound connections.

And even if you do, if you're planning on overdubbing, you'll need an external "soundcard" to keep all the sound pathways straight.



That's my Behringer UCA-202 set up for overdubbing. I don't recommend Apple Earbuds for music production, but they were available for the picture shoot.

We are assuming you're going to record the Headphone or Line-Out connections of your keyboard. If your keyboard has a USB connection, then that's almost certainly for MIDI. That's machine control, not music. Audacity can't do overdubbing or music production with MIDI.

Koz

I'm doing it the very same way, keyboard>mixer>interface>computer running Audacity. And my keyboard does have 2 line outs which I record on a stereo track in Audacity, so I'm already doing it, recording in real time by just playing the audio from the keyboard. I was just wondering if there's anything special to do or not to do when recording that way.