Digital piano and cakewalk connection

[gianki]

Hi! I would like to connect my digital piano (numa piano) to the pc through a usb midi cable and use cakewalk. I inserted the midi connectors reversing ("In" of the cable in "out" of the keyboard) and set cakewalk according to the image that I attach. Unfortunately I can't get any sound from the keyboard and no signal is recorded inside Cakewalk). I would be grateful if someone wanted to help me. Thanks.

[StudioNSFW]

Is it a Piano or a synthesizer?

If it is just a piano you can use it as a controller as you are.  Use a soft synth in CbB. You will need 2 tracks, one midi, one audio, before you hear anything..

Midi track has input from Midi on appropriate channel or Omni, Output to the soft synth. Audio Track has input from the soft synth, output to whatever buss it is supposed to land on. 

If it IS a synthesizer or workstation, modern ones have some sort of VST interface so you can drive them just like a VST soft synth within CbB. 

[David Baay]

MIDI only records and plays back the performance 'gestures' of playing the instrument - what key you hit (note number), how hard/fast (velocity), at what time (measure, beat, tick), and how long you held it (duration).  In order to record the audio, you need to connect the audio outputs of the piano to the audio interface/soundcard on the  PC, create an audio track in Cakewalk with Input set to that source, and enable Input Echo on the track to monitor the audio passing through Cakewalk and out to your monitors.

The usual process is to record the MIDI with Input Echo enabled on both the MIDI and Audio tracks but only arming the MIDI track (turn off Local Control in the piano so it's only responding to MIDI echoed or played back from Cakewalk). Then edit the recorded MIDI as necessary to perfect the performance, and then arm only the Audio track and record the output from the piano as the MIDI track plays back.

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by David Baay

[gianki]

1 hour ago, StudioNSFW said:

Is it a Piano or a synthesizer?

If it is just a piano you can use it as a controller as you are.  Use a soft synth in CbB. You will need 2 tracks, one midi, one audio, before you hear anything..

Midi track has input from Midi on appropriate channel or Omni, Output to the soft synth. Audio Track has input from the soft synth, output to whatever buss it is supposed to land on. 

If it IS a synthesizer or workstation, modern ones have some sort of VST interface so you can drive them just like a VST soft synth within CbB. 

 

[gianki]

Thank you for your quick response and for your competence. I will try to do what is suggested even if I'm just starting out. Regards.

[StudioNSFW]

David's answer is more complete. an Audio line out of the piano into your interface in addition to the midi gets you the tone the keyboard is actually putting out, independent of any Soft Synth.  In that case you don't STRICTLY need midi at all (but you'd be a fool not to record it for later use and tuning of the track).

This is assuming your keyboard has a Line Out, of course.  My Craptacular M-Audio Keystation does not. So sending it through a VST synth is the only real way to use it. 

Im going through that right now on a couple tracks.  I don't like the patch the piano player used on the original recording (which wasn't done on the M-Audio), so I m now pumping same midi data through a synth to switch it over to the instruments that are better voiced for the tracks. In this case I'll eventually pitch the original Audio Track and replace it with a midi generated one. 

Other tracks, same project, the original audio from the old XV-88 (not the M-Audio) is just fine.  I go the extra step of micing the room as well as the line out for big piano parts as we have a really nice sounding room - blending the Line and room tracks to one buss in post. 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by StudioNSFW

[John Vere]

I guess your "interface" is just a MIDI only device.  But why are you using that? 

 

Most Keyboards have MIDI output via a USB jack these days. If this is your keyboard shown above then you simply use the USB port directly to your PC. You would not need to use the DIN jacks. 

But as said, midi does not transmits audio. It only transmits DATA.  

To record the audio of the keyboard you will need to purchase an Audio interface with the correct inputs. Be careful choosing one that has 2 inputs that are matched. Many split the 2 inputs into Mike and Guitar. I have this covered in my tutorials found in my signature.