Simpler option

[allysonmarie]

Hello

So my usual way of recording voice and piano was to wear a voice recorder around my neck as I play my piano. Not good quality but enough for personal use. Now I've recently bought a Kawai CS11 digital piano and it can be hooked up to devices. I want to take advantage of that for better piano sound quality but also to still record voice as I play. I don't want to have to record one and then the other. And I don't need effects or other complicated additions, just voice and piano.

What are the best options for going about this? I'm overwhelmed with too much info about things I don't understand when I've searched / different recorders and mics and software and hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Something I thought would be simple now seems nearly impossible...lol  Should I just stick with the recorder strung around my neck? I have a feeling I'm out of luck... 

[T.C. Elliott]

I would say it depends on your recorder. I've got a little Roland R-05 and it has two 1/8" inputs you can put mics into. So there could be an option to put the keyboard into one and have a microphone in the other. I've never used it, but I'm assuming you can mix them or have them panned hard left and right in the settings. (Just guessing, I only use it for recording live shows (rarely) and getting ideas down.)

Lots of other options exist outside of a hand held recorder. Using a dynamic microphone into a BR box and a 1/4" instrument cable from the piano to record onto two tracks. Then bounce the two tracks to a master track and export as a WAV file.

There are adapters for the iphone that allow multitrack recording (or so I hear.)

I'm sure there are folks here much more knowledgeable than I that can offer ideas, but those sprung to mind.

[64Guitars]

I just had a look at the manual for the Kawai CS11 and saw that it has an audio recorder built in. It can record the piano directly to a WAV or MP3 file on a USB stick. Additionally, audio from the piano's Line In jacks will be mixed and recorded with the piano. So the simplest way for you to record is probably to buy a microphone and a mic preamp and connect the preamp to the piano's Line In jacks.

There are plenty of good microphone preamps available. However, they can be expensive and often only have a single channel output. So a better option for you might be an inexpensive stereo mixer such as the Behringer Xenyx 502 which is $39.99 at Sweetwater. You'd plug your microphone into the Behringer, and plug the stereo outputs of the Behringer into the stereo Line Inputs of your piano using a suitable adapter cable such as this one.

There are lots of microphones available in a wide range of prices. I'd suggest starting with an inexpensive condenser mic which will probably suit your needs just fine.

[allysonmarie]

Thank you both very much for your time and help I'm excited to get started again with recording. 

[TPB]

The condenser Mike while nice will pick up the piano as well as the voice  which may not be a problem for you  I prefer a dynamic mic for the vocal as it is more isolated and the stereo in for the keyboards but then again I am a novice with the keyboard
Tim