Low volume Wav recording, GP400

[Eli26]

 When recording as a WAV file onto a USB thumbdrive, the recording is EXTEMELY low in volume.  I had the volume parameter adjusted to the max (127), and teh keyboard setting was on normal (I'm not sure if that would matter whether it was on Normal, Heavy, or Light, but I actually tried it on Light and normal and had the same issue both ways).  Now, when I playback the recording through the GP400 speakers or headphones, the volume is fine.  But when I export the file it is EXTREMELY quiet. so much so that to hear it my laptop needs to have the volume on max (and eveen then it's a low volume).  Emailed it to my dad and he cold barely hear it.   This happened multiple times so it's not a onetime glitch.  How low are the recordings?  To make them listenable, I used audacity on my laptop to boost the volume.  The files needs about 20 decibels boost!!  (I am not a sound engineer and I didn't measure max peaks or stuff like that).    That seems broken, so much so that if there is no setting to adjust it, it seems like there is something wrong with the internal system that creates the settings on the file. 

 

Can somebody perhaps help me learn how to make a file with normal volume?

 

[Brad Saucier]

It is normal.  Casio has done it this way on many different products over the years.  The reason is to provide extra headroom that prevents clipping whenever the dynamic range reaches maximum.  Keep in mind the GP-400 has 256 note polyphony.  That is a lot of dynamic range, from just 1 note to 256, all at once.  That can get quite loud. The alternative would have been an internal limiter to prevent clipping. I'm glad they did not do that and left the full dynamic range intact. And yes, Audacity is the typical way we normalize recordings made on our Casio pianos.  

[Eli26]

OK.  Thanks for explaining it.  Definitely don;t want to sound like a complainer, but it is a pain having to adjust each file in order to review it on a laptop or chromebook (IN fact, do you know of a chromebook app that does what audacity does?).   But I still think there is a LOT of room before that ceiling, and it seems like they have overcompensated in limiting thevolume so much. I wasn't playing especially softly, and the audio actually needed about a 22-25 decibel boost.  I have hundreds of recordings of classical music, with a tremendous dynamic range, and the audio level for piano played at the volume which I was playing is much higher than that which is output into the USB.  In fact, even soft passages are usually louder than the what was output  It seems like it is overly dialed down waay lower than need be (again, if I'm wrong, please do correct me).   Not a scientific statement, but the sound of air coming through vents in my office was so loud that the GP400 recording of a Chopin waltz couldn't be heard on my phone's speakers, even when they were on max. 

 

One last point.  It seems to me that one way to demonstrate that the sound is TOO low is the simple fact that the output through the speakers is much higher than the sound on that card.  If I play that USB file through the line in, I believe that I can't get even close to the volume level of concert magic or of the sound which the internal recorder generates on the speakers.  This (to me) says that it is way lower than it needs to be.  (What I mean is that if keeping the volume at a normal level would produce clipping, than the instrument should be producing clipping through headphones (or the speakers) all the time, given that it plays so much higher than that file.  Please explain if I'm missing something.  I know it's academic, bu I do want to understand this.