Hi Guys,

Since I am not computer savvy as many of you are, I have a question. If I go out of my keyboard through a midi cable into my sound card in the computer and record the music in Sound Recorder, am I getting true digital sound from the keyboard or is it analog, as it would be if I used the standard outs (L & R) of the keyboard? My sound card has both midi and analog inputs. I want to make MP3s from songs done in Sound Recorder and want the best sound. Thanks.

KN6 Guy

MIDI DOES NOT RECORD ANY SOUNDS. To record to Audio you will require to use Keyboard LINE-OUT to PC LINE-IN.
You can use the PC's Sound Cards recording menu, but I use Soundforge (there are good editing options using a dedicated wave program. Recording line out R \ L to PC Sound Card. Record at 44hz 16 stereo. This saves as Wave File (.wav ).
If your keyboard has a Easy Record facility, use that to get the recording you are happy with first, then play it back into the PC set to record.
There are a number of small programs to convert .wav to MP3. Suggest you convert at 192bit for best quality against file size. The CD quality normal is 128bit.

Graham

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 05-22-2003).]

if you have a kn6X00 use the conventional analogue method of recording, if you have a kn7000 use the usb for top quality digital recording.

Thanks Graham and Technicsplayer for your quick replies.

Would I get true digital sound from the keyboard (Yes, I have a KN6) if I recorded to a CD Writer, making a CD, then played it in the CD ROM in the computer and recorded it to Sound Recorder in WAV 44hz 16 Stereo or does this still end up an analog recording?

KN6 Guy

no, because it had to go down an analogue line to make the original recording. You can get good analogue recordings with high quality computer soundcards, the 7k just means you don't have to spend serious money on a soundcard (or even have a sound card at all) to get excellent quality sound.

Thanks, very much. It is now making sense that the only outs on the keyboard are analog and therefore, the recording. It is from this point that you don't want to go to another generation (analog) in order to keep the sound quality. I am assuming that recording a stereo WAV file in Sound Recorder loses little sound quality. Is this so? By the way, I have the Sound Blaster PCI 128 sound card. It was considered quite good a few years ago. I realize there are far better cards now.

KN6 Guy

any analogue recording adds noise and distortion, people spend money to minimise the audible effects of this as much as possible.