How to record music from a digital piano?

£15 · 30 Oct 2020 at 13:09

I'm not sure this is the correct part of the forum, but here goes...

I want to record my son playing his digital piano. He wants to record Amazing Grace to play at my father's funeral next week. So I need to get a music file on a usb stick, or email, for the Crematorium to play on their PA system. I don't know what system they have, but we've been asked to select the other music from a website called Wesley Media, so presumably they have the capability to play media files.

The piano is a Kawai CN27 and it has Bluetooth, USB to host port, headphone and MIDI IN/OUT.

What's the simplest/best way to get it done? (Preferably free.) I have a Windows 10 laptop.

I'm watching you tube at the moment, but it appears MIDI is not the way to go as it doesn't actually give me a recording of the sound as we hear it?

£15 · 30 Oct 2020 at 13:15

Thanks. As it happens, I've just started installing that.

When I connect the piano to my laptop via the USB cable the laptop detects a device, but windows reports a malfunction and it's not recognised - driver issue? Should software solve that?

£15 · 30 Oct 2020 at 13:23

Cheers, I'll give that a go.

Edit: No mic input on either of my laptops.

£15 · 30 Oct 2020 at 17:59

Popped into our local music store and came away with a usb microphone and stand. My kids were after one anyway for messing around creating you tube videos, streaming etc, so thought I'd give it a go.

It does work, in a fashion, but will require some proper setup to reduce household noise, etc.

I've also been looking at something like the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 or 4i4. The latter, I think, is more future-proof, but about £70 more expensive and isn't available in installments from Amazon.

£15 · 30 Oct 2020 at 19:06

I'm not 100% sure what you're suggesting. The piano has a headphone socket - are you saying run a cable from this to the mic cable of a splitter like you mention?

£15 · 30 Oct 2020 at 21:17

Tried it. Hasn't worked. It could be a matter of choosing the wrong input in the settings, but i've tried them all and nothing is passing through.

£15 · 1 Nov 2020 at 16:09

I ended up ordering a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 and a headphone Y-Splitter (TRS stereo to 2x TR mono) and it's worked a treat. It'll do the immediate job, but will also hopefully see him through the years to come as he likes his music and production.