MIDI, Digital Music Composition, Windows Digital Audio Software, Digital Audio Recording, Live Audio Engineering, MIDI Guitar, General Music Theory and Composition.
Experience
Experience in the area:
- 25 years working with Computers and Digital Music.
- 10 years as a professional Live Sound Engineer.
- 5 years as a professional Studio Recording Engineer.
- 2 years as Creative Director of an internet-based Audio Production Company specializing in Sampling and Digital Audio.
Organizations:
- Currently active as a Beta Tester for various Audio Software Companies.
- Regular contributor to various Software Support Forums.
Education/Credentials:
- Dip. Technology Telecommunications Electronics (B.C.I.T.)
- A.A. Degree (U.B.C./S.F.U.)
- College Cert. in Jazz Guitar Composition (V.C.C.)
- College Cert. in Fine Arts (E.C.I.A.D.)
Question Hello, This is really a 2 part question. I am a piano teacher using a yamaha dgx 620 portable grand. I recently recorded student performance songs that was played on the portable grand (user song numbers 031-0350 and had to convert them to SMF format in the piano then saved on a USB flashmemory stick. Then downloaded them to my acer extensa 4420 laptop to make a CD for these students. I used the CD burning program that came with the computer. It uses windows vista and seemed to work well until I went to play the cd on a portable cd player. No sound. I can see where data was burned onto the cd. However the cd plays the audio when used in my laptop. Do you know what is happening and what I can do differenly? My goal was to use this piano for students to record their music and make cds for them to use during practice sessions. I really like the quality of sound when I record the piano/strings sound within the piano however the user songs don't allow for longer songs to record. Do you know of any good portable device for recording and cd burning? The 2nd part of ? is I need to find software I can use with this piano where I can record longer songs than allowed on the user song portion of piano and also for notation/composition as I want to record the sound of students compostions and print the score of music. Can you suggest anything. I understand I'll need to optain an audio interface cable like UX16. I am basically computer/tech illiterate but willing to learn! Thanks so much for your help!
Answer The most likely cause of the computer-burnt CD not working is because it has been burned incorrectly, or in the wrong format.
Although a lot of CD players will play mp3 encoded files, many do not. They all need to have a specially-formated CD, which you will need to select when you burn it. It is usually labeled something like "Make Audio CD."
Computers can read almost any format of music file, including raw files so having it work on the computer doesn't tell you much. You also mention you used SMF format... but this is just data to tell the Yamaha which notes to play... to actually record the audio performance, you would have had to record them as WAV files through the line-in of your laptop's soundcard. Since you say it worked well on the computer, so I assume you did this... but Windows also has a built-in MIDI player... so it also could have been the MIDI player actually playing the files?
The best "good portable device for recording and cd burning" is your laptop, of course. Simply get a USB Audio/MIDI interface and hook it up to your laptop. This will allow you to record MIDI performances of unlimited length, as well as keep track of them, play them back on the Yamaha, etc. Plus, you can also record the actual audio (headphones) coming from the Yamaha to your laptop as WAVE files, and then use your software to burn these to an Audio CD (Windows Media Player can also do this for you).
Any USB interface from M-Audio will work perfectly for your situation, and should fall within any budget.
You can then buy some sequencing software such as a basic edition of Sonar, or get one of the many freeware or low-cost independent applications available... simply do a Google search and look at what is available.
