Tim727

edit: The issue is definitely caused by neither Audacity NOR the amplification process. The static is there even with the original file (before any modifications/amplifications). It's just that it becomes more pronounced after amplification. Not amplifying is not an option though because the recordings are so ridiculously quiet to start out.

Hey all, So this kind of covers two issues. First of all, is it just me or has anyone else noticed then when recording to a thumb drive and then playing the .wav file on the computer the recordings are VERY VERY quiet? When I record and playback on the px-350 itself, the volume is absolutely fine, with or without headphones. However, when I record a song to a thumb drive and then open it on my PC it's so quiet that it's almost inaudible. I've tried to get around this by using Audacity to amplify the track. Audacity is able to usually amplify the track by on average about 15 db before clipping would occur ... and this helps to increase the audio to a suitable volume (although I would still prefer to be able to go a bit louder) ... BUT there is a (major) caveat. After amplifying the track, particularly for a track with a lot of pianissimo playing, I'll notice quite a bit of background static (which is much more noticeable when using headphones). In addition you can here this other noise that I would describe as kind of a "thumping" sound -- one for every single note. Has anyone else come across this? Here's a link to a track which demonstrates both the static and the thumping quite well: https://pianissimo.bandcamp.com/track/intelligent-design It's extremely frustrating because I want fairly pristine quality recordings and this static is unacceptable. So much so that if it's endemic to the px 350 (as opposed to a defect in just mine) I'll be forced to purchase a piano virtual instrument just to get the results I want. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Tim

I'm using Windows 7 ... but yeah as for the midi there does not seem to be any issue transferring data so I imagine that means the problem is almost certainly with my PCs ASIO driver as opposed to the CASIO driver (that is, if it's even a driver problem at all). I still haven't yet tried upgrading the driver because I foresee it causing some headaches so I'm going to wait until this weekend when I'll actually have some time. "I think what you are saying is that once you record your piano performance as midi data, you want to play the PX350 using the midi file through your midi connection from the computer. and as this is playing, you now wish to record the audio using the PX350 audio output jack into your computer's audio input jack?" This is EXACTLY what I want to do!!! Have you ever been able to do that? "If this is so, it might be easier to use your DAW or any midi recording software to record and play back just the midi data, and use a separate program such as Audacity which in the Windows world is specifically designed to record and save audio only files, and save these as .wav files or any other audio format it has built-in. And the audio quality, while maybe not a pristine audiophile quality recording, should certainly sound as clear as any othe rmusic file you can play back with your computer (mp3, mp4, flac etc.)" So first of all ... would this scenario involve me recording the sound generated from the piano's own internal sound engine? If so, how can I do this with Audacity? Or would Audacity be generating its own sound from the midi? If it's the latter then that would not be an acceptable solution for me since I want to use the CASIO's internal audio. If it's the former however, despite the relative inconvenience this option might work for me. Because then I could record the midi, tweak it as necessary and use Audacity to create a wave which I could then import into my Cubase project as an audio track. Thanks for the help! P.S. I tried connected my px to my MacBook and record the audio in cubase ... and that did not work either ... same as my PC.

Are you referring to the CASIO driver or the other one that would have already been there? In either case I never installed a driver explicitly. As for the CASIO one though it automatically installed when I connected the px-350 for the first time. I'm weary of uninstalling the ASIO driver because I've heard that that can be a bit messy/tricky. If you're referring to the CASIO one though I could definitely give that a shot ... I actually just looked on the Dell website (I have a ~2011 XPS laptop) and noticed that there is a 2013 update for my driver. When I look at the driver on my PC I see a date in 2011 ... so my guess is that the thing has never been updated. I figure maybe I'll try updating that first and then go from there. Hopefully that will solve my issues! I do just want to clarify something though to make sure we're on the same page as far as what exactly I'm trying to do ... particularly since you alluded to the DAW "syncing audio and midi files together". In particular, unless if it's absolutely necessary, I have no desire to have an actual audio track of my piano in my song. Rather what I'd like is the following situation: I would like to initially only record midi. When I save/export the song to disk, I'm hoping that it sends the midi messages back to the piano which then produces the sounds and routes the audio back to the PC (through the cable I just purchased) and that that sound will then get recorded in the file. The reason that I want to clarify this point is that I'm concerned that it's not possible to do that ... and rather that it's only possible to directly record both midi and audio at the same time (which I've actually been able to do ... although it sounded awful and static-y as I mentioned in an earlier post). My fear is that this would explain why I *did* hear audio -- albeit terribly sounding audio -- when I recorded directly to an audio track but I heard nothing when exporting a sole midi track to disk and then playing the WAV file that was produced. Specifically I feel that the distinction is important because I would very much like the ability to edit the midi after recording and then have it "reproduce" the appropriate audio after said changes have been made. If however it can only record the audio directly at the time of playing then this would not be possible, which is my concern. (Sidenote: I do know that I can record and edit midi and that the DAW will send that updated midi data to my piano when I hit play in the DAW, but that doesn't mean that when I save the track that the audio will be produced and actually recorded into the WAV file). It is possible to do what I'm referring to correct? I just want to be 100% sure we're talking about the same thing before I go forward with any additional steps! And thanks again for your help! -Tim

Jokeyman, thank you once again for the very thorough response! I read this and acted on it a week ago but was going to wait until I resolved my issues to post again. Sadly I've not been able to do that. I purchased the cables that you indicated from Guitar Center hoping that it would be as simple as just plugging them in to the right spots So here's the first thing: in Cubase there is a menu in which you can select both Audio Inputs and Audio Outputs. After plugging in the cable I would have expected there to be a new option under Audio Inputs, but there was not. The only thing that was there was General Low Latency ASIO driver, which is always there. I tried selected this anyway, thinking that maybe that was what I needed (despite strongly thinking that this was not the case) but when I tried to export a song from cubase I had the same results as before: a file with no sound. At one point I was able to record audio from the Casio by recording to an actual audio track instead of a midi track, but this is not really my goal. My goal is to record to a midi track and then have it produce the audio as it's "exporting" the track. The problem with recording directly to an audio track is that it does not allow me to then edit the midi and have the changes be "reflected" in the audio track. Furthermore, the audio track sounded AWFUL, with a very significant amount of static/distortion, so I feel like I must be doing something wrong. Do you have any advice or can you think of anything else I could try? Would you have suspected there to be a new item under Audio Inputs after plugging in the cable? As another interesting sidenote: when trying to fiddle around with all of this stuff I got numerous Blue Screens of Death, that complained of something like IRQ_DRIVER_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, which lead me to believe I might have some kind of driver issue that is preventing this from working properly. Thanks again for your help!

Jokeyman, first of all, thank you for all the time and effort you put into your reply ... I really truly appreciate it! I followed the steps you listed as closely as possible and I've made some progress but have not quite gotten it to work. When I plugged the piano into the computer it actually downloaded a driver for it atomatically. You mentioned that I needed to install another one from the website so I followed that link you posted but none of the drivers there indicated that they were for the 350, so I did not download any of them :/ I decided to just continue on with the rest of the steps you listed ... I proceded to open up cubase and after a little tinkering here and there I managed to get it to recognize and record midi from my casio. Sidenote: I did turn local control off ... and then when I played back the track it played through the CASIO speakers but not the PC speakers. I just want to verify that this is supposed to happen? Here's the issue though, when I save the file in cubase and then try to play it with window media player, the track is silent. There is no audio content. I know that you mentioned that you don't have experience with cubase, but since most DAWs will share many similarities in the way that things need to be set up I wonder if you still might be able to shed some light on the issue. Are you sure that it is not necessary to attach another cable between the 350 and the PC so that I can send it the actual audio? Because currently it looks to me like I'm sending midi ... and then the computer is sending midi back ... and then the 350 is using its internal audio engine to 'convert' the midi into the appropriate sounds. But it looks to me that that audio is never being routed to the PC. There is a place in cubase where I can select "Audio Inputs" and "Audio Outputs". Under both it says "Not connected". Is that a problem in this particular case? Or maybe things aren't working because I was not able to download that second driver? Thank you again for your help!!

Hmm ok. Well I'm probably imminently buying a new (PC) desktop for my music production anyway which will necessitate me buying a new DAW. Do you know by any chance if Cubase Artist would have the functionality I need? And jokeyman, I had actually already looked at most (or maybe all) of your posts before starting this thread, but it wasn't clear to me whether they actually adressed my issue. Forgive me but I'm new to the world of digital/virtual instruments, midi, and DAWS, etc. Is there any chance you could provide me with a simple step by step procedure to get a DAW (such as Cubase etc) to not only record the MIDI from my piano but have it play the piano sound as well? I would greatly appreciate any help! Thanks! And happy new year to you both

Hi all, I've been trying to figure this out for quite a while and finally decided to come on here for help. I got a px350 a couple months ago and love it ... but it quickly became apparent to me that using the 17 track recorder is a massive waste of time. I would like to instead use a DAW so that I will be able to work much more quickly and efficiently. I've already hooked up my piano to my Macbook running GarageBand and can successfully use the CASIO as a midi controller, which is great ... but what I want is this: I want to get the DAW to use the actual CASIO piano sound instead of its own built in sounds. Is there any way to do this? I don't see why there wouldn't be. If something like Kontakt can send audio data to a DAW and ALSO have it record the MIDI then the CASIO should be able to do the same no? Alternatively, if this is not possible ... is there a way for me to do the following sequence of things: (1) Record to the DAW using the piano as a midi controller. (2) Edit the midi in the DAW (3) Send the MIDI back to the piano, either directly through the USB cable or via a USB drive such that the piano will effectively load that midi as one of the RECORDER songs and then be able to play it back on the piano using the piano's sounds. Are either of these things possible?? Hopefully both are! I really appreciate any help ... this has been frustrating me to no end because I love the piano's sound but all of my work will be in a DAW from now on ... and it would awful to have to buy a piano virtual instrument just because I can't use the perfectly good (or actually great!) digital piano sound that I already have. Thanks for any help! -Tim