[SOLVED!] Best tips on how to record keyboard on Audacity USB

Before going ahead to take a look at how to record a keyboard on audacity sub. Let’s take a look at what audacity is.

What is Audacity? 

Audacity is a digital auditor and recording software application. It is designed to be a free and open-source application. Audacity is compatible with Windows, Mac OS/OS X and Unix operating systems. Audacity is a program that has been around for quite some time as it was developed by  Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg in May 2000. It’s a quite popular application and has millions of users from corners all over the world.

Audacity can be used to record from a variety of sources and musical instruments. It can also be used to process different types of audio sounds. This software can be used to add popular effects such as fading in and out, trimming, normalization and so on. Audacity is versatile and had even been used to record albums.

Features of Audacity

• Four different themes are available to users to customize their look and feel of the application
• Recording and playing features. Time Record allows users to determine when a recording starts and ends; useful for unattended recording. Depending on the version you have, you can get access to the MIDI playback, scrubbing and Punch and Roll Recording.
• It offers users a lot of room to edit the sounds to their preference. Users get access to cut, copy and paste with a lot of room to undo.
• It also features modern navigation controls and the best tools. Users get access to tools such as zoom and single track edit, project pane and XY project navigation, non-destructive and destructive effect processing and audio file manipulation.
• Allows for conversion of cassette tapes or records into digital tracks.
• It can be used on a variety of operating systems including; Windows, Macs OS/OS X and Unix. However, it still offers a similar graphical interface on the different operating systems.
• A variety of digital effects and plugins. It’s also possible to write more requests with Nyquist.
• There’s also multitrack mixing and audio spectrum analysis.
• Ability to detect dropout errors while recording

Now, you obviously know that Audacity can be used to record from a number of sources. You may ask, how can I get to record my keyboard on Audacity? To do that, you have to first connect your keyboard to the system and set up Audacity.

How to connect Audacity USB to your computer system? 

To connect audacity to a system, you would need to get a normal audio cable. A simple audio cable would do the trick. Connect the USB cable into the USB port of the keyboard and plug the other end into the USB port of the computer. Make sure that you connect the cable to the keyboard and that the cable is in good condition. Then, turn on the keyboard and launch the Audacity program. To ensure that you’re able to hear the recording, do this:

Edit => Preferences => Tick the box “Software playthrough”.

Play the song on the keyboard. If you don’t have the ” recording” option on your keyboard, you’ll have to play it live while recording on the program. After this, you can start to record on Audacity.

The keyboard has now been connected to the system and you’re ready to start recording.

How to record keyboard on Audacity USB?

You can start recording through the following processes:

Set up the Volume. Navigate to the volumes panel and click on recording as your chosen form of input. You could either have connected the devices through Line In or Mic In. As you’re using the USB cable, you’re connected through Line Out to Line In. Move the volume slider to the highest and increase the volume knob about halfway. You may have to try out a few things to get the right option for you. Keep in mind that a piano has a large dynamic range, so you have to keep the volume low enough to avoid any distortion.

Listening to yourself. During the recording process, you may need to listen to yourself. If your keyboard has in-built speakers, you may have no problems here. But speakers without in-built speakers, you may be using the Line Out connectors to already connect your speakers. If you’re not already listening through Phones Out, you can listen through headphones connected to your instrument.

It’s also possible to listen to the sound through the computer. To do this, you would need to enable Line In for playback using the volume control panel. Now, any sound that comes into the computer will be sent directly to the in-built speakers of the computer. Then, if your computer has no speakers you can connect through headphones.

Increase the volume to a level that you feel comfortable with. This volume level is different from the one used for recording and you’re free to increase or reduce it at will.

Recording through the keyboard. Audacity is a great choice for recording through multiple sources. Audacity is free and powerful software that simplifies recording.

To record, launch the Audacity program. Verify the source where you’ll be recording from. When you’re ready to start recording, navigate to the Recording panel. The “Record” panel is identified as a button with a red dot. Click on the button to start recording. Then, audacity will automatically create a new track. Play something with the use of the keyboard and it will immediately appear on the track. As soon as you’re done, click on “stop”. Make use of the zoom button to view the entire recording (shortcut: Ctrl + F).

When the recording is over, Audacity will display two waveforms with one at the top (representing the left stereo channel) and another at the bottom (representing the right stereo channel). If only a single waveform is displayed, then it’s possible that you had just recorded in mono. To change it, navigate to;

Preferences => Audio I/O => the click on “2 (stereo)”

When you’ve completed the whole process then you can have a successful recording.