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i have a friend who is using a cheapo keyboard that has only a output in headphone output form that he would normally use to play in silence but he recently started using it to connect directly to his pc for recording in Audacity my question is how good of qualility is that really for him?you know its just one headphone hole, should he upgrade like i think?

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dvdhawk Fri, 01/16/2009 - 14:51

Is there an upgrade in the works? Cheapo keyboard usually means cheapo headphone amp - it's not the ideal signal. How does it sound?

Keyboard headphone jacks are usually 1/4 inch stereo 3-conductor TRS.

Is he using a standard mono 1/4 inch TS instrument cable?

Is he mono-ing the Left and Right before going into a mono computer input? or recording the L/R in stereo?

Can you tell us about what kind of inputs the computer or interface has?

BobRogers Sat, 01/17/2009 - 07:13

I guess this all really depends on how important this keyboard sound is to you. If you are only using it because of budget considerations I'd just clean the contacts and make do with the headphone jack. If the cheesy sound of the keyboard is musically important to you, you should start searching keyboard forums and find people who are using "found sounds" from old keyboards, video games, toys, etc. to make music. They must have a lot of experience in modifying things that most people think of as junk in order to use them in "serious" music. It's not necessarily easy. These are basically cheap toys and not meant to be repaired or modified. But it is possible. Good luck.