I personally own a Yamaha DGX-220 Portable Grand Piano. Its connected to my computer via a USB cable, allowing me to directly record whatever I'm playing into the computer and save as a MIDI file. To do this, I either use Anvil Studio or Overture but I am still not very satisfied with the sound quality recorded in. It sounds... very hollow and empty. I want it to sound more like a Acoustic Grand Piano.

I tested with 2 midi files I downloaded from the internet and noticed the one that sounds better has alot of tracks even though it's just a piano piece. The other one sounds very empty and it only has 1 track in it. Below are pictures for those who don't understand. Taken from Overture.



I uploaded both midis for comparison.

My question is, which software is better at recording? If there are others that are better, do list them out.

I also read about VST plugins and I think that may be the key to solving my problems. Any pro can explain or guide me?



This post has been edited by sumbody: Aug 13 2007, 01:40 AM


Attached File(s)
 Midi.zip ( 11.48k ) Number of downloads: 5

For your information, midi( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi ) is something like saving notes in code, and using your computer to generate sound, therefore different computer will generate different outcome. As your midi, it sounds quite ok with my computer. I used a third party sound font which is much better then the original windows microsoft midi synth.

I am not sure where you can get better sound library, mine sounds decent, good one usually you have purchase i think. VST is software synthesising i believe, i am not too sure about it too

I understand that different sound cards have different sound fonts. And generally, expensive ones have better sound quality. Well, mind sharing with me your sound font for me to do comparisons?

And about VST, I saw some VST plugins that adds reverb. Without reverb, my keyboard sounds very hollow on its own (The sound coming out from the keyboard's speaker). After enabling reverb settings like (Hall, Stage etc), the sound produced by my keyboard is much better.

I plan to convert the midi recorded into mp3/wav so that the quality stays the same on different PCs.

This post has been edited by sumbody: Aug 13 2007, 04:28 PM

if you want to save sound from your piano playing, why not you just record directly from audio out of the piano into audio in of your PC? then convert the wave file into mp3 to make it smaller

if u're doing midi, get cubase and look around for VST plugins. VSTs are virtual instruments which will convert all midi signals into desired instruments. How much did u pay for the DGX? piano keys?

i also would recommend VSTs as theyre powerful and easy to use.

im a reason user so i would stick to using reason. im using reason piano refills(which doesnt come with reason). its very powerful and gives u alot of control over the sound (which is good for geeks like me. not user friendly). i dont consider myself a piano player (i cant really play, or play at all) but i love the sounds of it especially the producer presets, where they give u different presets of piano sounds by famous producers and different pianos. even with the presets u still get a hell lot of control.

Heres one preset:


and with the racks opened up:






AND THATS JUST ONE PRESET!

How do I achieve that? What software do I use?

RM1600 For DGX-220. No piano action though. Keys are not weighted. The DGX-5xx is RM2k+ but has weighted keys. I'm starting to get used to these light keys now... Lol.

echobrainproject: Heard of Reason before. Recording studios normally use this software. So basically I need some profesional audio editing software like cubase/reason/cakewalk to achieve optimum quality?

The key word like everybody else has already said is VST. If your Anvil Studio or Overture supports VST then find some good ones that are compatible with them. Then you won't need cubase, reason, cakewalk, sonar...etc.

The other way is to connect your keyboard via headphone jack to your computer. I've looked on the yamaha website and it doesnt mention anything about a direct out for audio signal, so the headphone jack is your best bet. By doing this you will no longer be recording midi but audio so the sound samples will be from your keyboard. But since you are not recording midi, you cant edit it later on if you make mistakes in your playing. Which is actually good because it forces you to practice .

The difference is midi records the pattern and dynamics u play on the keyboard into a code and then uses that code to play a VST. So you're not recording music rather you're recording which keys you press how hard you press etc etc. If you record directly from your headphone jack out, then the computer doesnt know which keys you pressed but rather what tone is coming out of your keyboard. So you will get the samples from your keyboard.

Hope it's not too confusing

I don't really understand about the connecting to head phone jack in PC part. What sort of cable do I use?

Bassix: I understand what you are trying to say. Midi recording allows me to record the notes and all (dynamics, sustain and stuff) but Direct recording is like putting a mic beside my keyboard speaker, it records whatever I play into a format which I can't edit (Easily compared to Midi).

just regular cables u can get easily at stores. should be 1/4" jacks to 1/8" jacks cable

stick to midi, u can get better quality of sound out of VST

using the keyboard's onboard sound might not be ideal especially when u're plugging straight into ya soundcard, thats quite a huge amount of quality lost in the process cause u have to take the audio capturing of ya sound device into consideration..

my 2 cents

agreed that u should stick to midi. anyway to answer yr question about connection, u don't have to put a mike in front of the piano's speaker. that will pickup external noise as well. yr piano should have a line out or headphone jack. connect it to your sound card's line in. then adjust volume (piano & PC). i'm sure your PC has some kind of wave recorder software which comes with the soundcard. then get a freeware wave to mp3 converter

Thanks for all the help. I'm gonna stick with MIDI and VST. So which VST plugins is recommended for optimum piano quality?

Effects like reverb and sustain are important. Any other important effects to enhance my recordings?

This post has been edited by sumbody: Aug 15 2007, 12:24 AM

If you're willing to fork (*Cough* ) out for the VSTi , Akoustik Piano seems to be the popular one among pianists. It offers a number of piano models as well as reverb effects to play with. Can't give any comment as I haven't got a MIDI controller to play with.

Likewise, you could check out True Pianos VSTi :
http://www.truepianos.com/
Judging from the audio and video demos, the VSTi sounds pretty warm and authentic. Best of all, it's CPU-light.

Cough Cough Ahem. I will go google for it. Thanks for the info.

Edit: Wow, didn't expect Akoustik to be 2GB in size. Truepiano on the other hand is only 50Mb. Maybe less effects but I think this will be sufficient for me already.

1 VST plugin alone is good enough or many VST plugins are required?

Let me set this straight first. I run Overture 4 (Its a VST Host). And then I load up the VST rack and include Truepiano in it right? Then only I start recording my piece on the keyboard. Or is it the other way round, record first then only setup VST?

This post has been edited by sumbody: Aug 15 2007, 12:35 AM

Ermm... I used to use this free VSTi, not much flexibility though:
http://www.yohng.com/piano.html
There're a number of freeware VSTi floating around the net, so I suggest googling around.

If you're looking for professional/commercial VSTi, I'm not too familiar either. Sorry, can't help here... google.

EDIT: Setup it up first so you could hear the VSTi in real-time. You can always modify the settings after recording.

This post has been edited by led_zep_freak: Aug 15 2007, 12:39 AM

Ok, I tried out Classic Reverb and found it great. Only problem now is, the audio seems to be too soft. Is it my speakers? Or is it the soundfont problem?

soft compared to what? audio sound too soft could be many things.

Compared to my Keyboard's own speakers. My 2.1 Speaker even loses out when it comes to dB levels.

Any good guitar VSTi plugins to recommend? (Acoustic/Electric)

---

Added on August 17, 2007, 12:36 amI found this from google.

Is Steinberg's Virtual Guitarist good?

This post has been edited by sumbody: Aug 17 2007, 12:36 AM

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