Consider that audio interface today!

[JerryPH]

I was given this idea after Breezy posted his video, to show the difference between hearing a digital accordion with and without clacking sounds or external noise. It can get a lot worse if you are in a public area, have people talking, or outside road noise, or at home, the AC blasting away, neighbor mowing his lawn or the wife watching TV real loud... NONE of that makes any difference if you use an audio interface with your digital accordion!



Now I made the video in my basement, which is well sound treated, has minimal echo, but still showed how much of that audio quality is lost by not going direct to the file on the video. There is no audio syncing needed, and no real deterrents, with a huge increase in audio quality.

"oh but audio interfaces are expensive!"... Yes, some are, but then some aren't and some would be perfect for anyone that could scrounge up $35 US dollars for something like a Behringer 2 channel interface, so no real excuse there.

Want to take your music videos with your digital accordions to the next level? THIS is the way.

Enjoy.

 

[kep]

Jerry,

The idea is 100% right, just double check the audio: I don't hear stereo where you claim it is.

 

[JerryPH]

Jerry,

The idea is 100% right, just double check the audio: I don't hear stereo where you claim it is.

Just checked, I see that now... thanks for noting this! I found out what happened... I totally forgot an idiosyncrasy of my cellphone, I happened to use the S21 Ultra's standard video mode, which captures USB input in MONO instead of the PRO MODE which captures the USB inputs in stereo. Even in mono, though, the sound still is *way* better. My mistake, sorry and THANKS for spotting this, Kep!

All that said, though this setup can be convenient under certain circumstances, in the end, this is not really my preferred method, I really do prefer doing everything separately... getting the audio and video files in to post production, tweaking everything and having fun with the audio and video. I get a kick recording audio in lossless wave, video in BRAW, color grading and in Reaper really controlling the image and quality of the audio before getting it in to Davinci Resolve and syncing things up and rendering a file for upload... but that said, the audio interface cannot be denied for how much it improves the sound coming out of a digital accordion.

 

[JerryPH]

OK, take 2 (but a little tongue in cheek).
DO you guys-n-gals hear a stereo sound now?

 

[John M]

OK, take 2 (but a little tongue in cheek).
DO you guys-n-gals hear a stereo sound now?

I can definitely hear the stereo on this video you just did. Much better than your previous post.
John
P.S. I have that familiar tune "ringing" in my head, but I can't remember the name. Would appreciate a reply. Names of people, places, etc. are driving me nuts these days as I go into my "final chapter" at 82.

 

[JerryPH]

Thanks John!

Song name? "Maria Marie"

There are a lot of songs out there that when you play them get stuck in the head, for me this is one of those songs, which is why I don't play it all that often... lol

I should just make a video of it and let it be.

 

[Tom]

Thanks John!

Song name? "Maria Marie"

There are a lot of songs out there that when you play them get stuck in the head, for me this is one of those songs, which is why I don't play it all that often... lol

I should just make a video of it and let it be.

Yes, the audio interface sounds better, can’t verify the stereo on my phone. I don’t know about a video of maria marie and let it be, maybe hey jude or michelle would be better?

 

[KeysFla]

Korg just came out with a cool audio interface. But it will not work on my dated IPhone 12, 13 and up…

PianoRec - DIGITAL PIANO RECORDING TO YOUR PHONE | KORG (USA)

Effortless High-Quality Recording on Your Smartphone

www.korg.com

 

[Airy]

Korg just came out with a cool audio interface. [...]

PianoRec - DIGITAL PIANO RECORDING TO YOUR PHONE | KORG (USA)

Effortless High-Quality Recording on Your Smartphone

www.korg.com

Looks like a nice idea to take the signal from the headphone output - less cable clutter compared to 2x line out. And this interface has a small footprint and almost no weight - good for attaching to the accordion.

But what I never like is when accessories of smartphones / tablets block the charging port and instead feed themselve from the smartphone battery. Maybe no problem for an one hour recording but if you pause because your spouse urges you to wash the dishes and you want to resume with recording afterwards you may be suprised...

 

[Airy]

But it will not work on my dated IPhone 12, 13 and up

I just looked into the specs. Down to iPhone 13 is definetively listed as compatible (see "Compatibility Chart" at https://www.korg.com/us/products/digitalpianos/pianorec/compatibility.php). But you would need an Lightning-USB-camera-adapter. I personally assume it would even work with older iPhone / iPads because the "PianoRec" device seems to work as a standard USB-audio device.

*) I assume - didn't test!

[...] when accessories of smartphones / tablets block the charging port [...]

I have to relativize my above statement because when using the mentioned camera adapter this has a port for a charging cable as well. It will get a bit more clunky, though.

And another interesting feature: The "PianoRec" seems to allow parallel recording of your voice when you use any CTIA-standard earphones with inbuild microphones. One such headset is even provided in the package. I wouldn't expect great quality from the provided headset - so for recording your sing-along it may not be thee best choice. But - as shown in one of the videos - it should be perfect for talking whilst in an online music lesson.

And if my assumptions are correct the headphones will play the accordion (they say: "keyboard") audio AND the audio of the iphone at the same time. This will be necessary for online person-to-person music lessons but can be used to play your accordion silently to a background track from your phone. But the device does NOT seem to have any level adjustment - you would have to balance the volume of the different sound sources using the headphone volume knob on your keyboard / accordion and the playback volume within the app. And the microphone signal seems to have no way to be leveled in any way.

 

[Ventura]

we have some other devices (usb3 projector) and the
cabling allows multiple connections to the USB "hub" meaning a
power source can also be fed in to the wiring mix.. it seems
to work naturally that way, the devices have no confusion

 

[JerryPH]

One should be able to get an easy 60+ minutes from a phone with a healthy battery. It does add to the complexity if you need to power both though. If you absolutely need to power that audio interface and charge the phone via this USB hub, it is doable and can be done. Good news, it doesn't have to be the overpriced Apple adapter ($55CDN). I have the Apple adapter and a small $12 USB hub that can be used to power the system... and both work fine.

Where it does get a little tricky is the power source. There are batteries that can power phones and tablets but thats an additional cost. Something like a TalentCell external battery could power this kind of a setup for 24 hours straight and still be small enough to be taped to the tripod.

Small USB hubs, as I said, I have both, and both work well. I can charge the ipad and it would still be enough to power a USB bus powered audio interface and phone at the same time.



This is where my audio interface adds additional challenges. It is NOT bus powered, it uses either 8 AA batteries for 90-120 minutes of use or an external 9-12 volt power source. TalentCell makes a battery with a 12v and 5v output and could easily power my setup. That battery is around $90Cdn. Not worth it for me, as I don't do this much... but a good solution. From my photography days, I have a 12v 20amp power inverter that I could use... did that once to record and capture the audio of a 3 hour (about 10% of it's total capacity), music event in a church for my niece... worked like a champ... powered the audio interface, 2 phantom powered condenser mics and camera at 110v and made a great stabilizer for the camera stand (it weighs about 14 pounds!). This is not the kind of setup that I would expect the average consumer to have, though.

 

[kep]

Jerry,
I fully understand your approach. Just my 2 cents, I think we can have 3 options for recording:

• Full blown studio approach [on a budget]. Everything goes to computer program through an external audio interface and external camera by USB. You can record audio and video separately and synchronize & process programmatically.
  • Pro: you have full control of every bit in the chain
  • Contra: you have to control every bit of the chain
• Field recording: separate audio and video using camera/smartphone and portable audio recorder. Merge them into video by computer program.
  • Pro: compact and relatively cheap, could go to a gig in a small bag
  • Contra: usually problematic to synchronize the recording
• Budget field recording: everything goes to smartphone using integrated camera and audio interface a-la GO:Mixer.
  • Pro: pocket-size compact, no need to synchronize audio & video
  • Contra: every take is final; quality is only as good as your smartphone's hardware and software (latest models could be pretty good, though)

 

[JerryPH]

Jerry,
I fully understand your approach. Just my 2 cents, I think we can have 3 options for recording:

That's pretty much it.
Of course like anything else, there are variations in between there. Let me give you an example...

I have an old ipad (pre-M1 ipad). It works great for my needs. I can use the camera in it to record 4k video, then use the free version of Davinci Resolve to edit it (trim, enhance audio and send directly to Youtube from the Resolve app). With the adapters I show above, it can be powered by external batteries to do day long sessions or power a bus powered USB interface for about 3 hours (its a well used battery).

That is another variation of the theme above if you want to increase the quality of that image. I also happen to own a Blackmagic Design Video Assist 7 12G HDR recorder. Using the free Blackmagic camera app, I capture a direct feed from the ipad, capture in LOG format for extra video quality and have the perfect little setup that is both advanced and portable. Of course I would need to get that external battery, but wow, consider this... 10 years ago, you'd need tens of thousands of dollars of equipment to get to this level of functionality and quality that a cell phone/ipad and audio interface offer today!

To simplify, we have:

- The all out home studio, high end recording of audio and video. Cons are it takes time and tons of practice to perfect. It's pretty expensive too. Results are superior to everything else.

- The average video recorder/recent (5 years or less) cell phone and audio interface. You choose whether to sync audio or not and whether to work on the video file in the phone/ipad or not. There are at least 5 variations or levels in this part to decide how much further you want to go... but as a bare minimum, a cell phone sitting on an audio interface takes you to that next level where (currently) maybe 10% of all digital accordionists are.

 

[Rosie C]

Field recording: separate audio and video using camera/smartphone and portable audio recorder. Merge them into video by computer program.

• Pro: compact and relatively cheap, could go to a gig in a small bag
• Contra: usually problematic to synchronize the recording

This is the approach I use, and yes the synchronising has been a nightmare. I use a pair of elderly camcorders for video, a digital audio recorder and I have a clapper board. The first hurdle was making sure everything was 48kHz, but I still had sync problems. I eventually realised the video editor software defaults to 24fps, whereas the camera records at 25fps (although it has no setting for this). Before that the video always ran 4% too fast.

 

[JerryPH]

This is the approach I use, and yes the synchronising has been a nightmare. I use a pair of elderly camcorders for video, a digital audio recorder and I have a clapper board. The first hurdle was making sure everything was 48kHz, but I still had sync problems. I eventually realised the video editor software defaults to 24fps, whereas the camera records at 25fps (although it has no setting for this). Before that the video always ran 4% too fast.

Yeah, thats always a minor challenge until one learns all the best ways to get around it. Seriously, for me synching audio to video is a 5-10 second process, probably the easiest thing that I do.

Once the audio and video files are in Resolve, I select the 2 audio files (the one from the camera and the one from the audio interface that I've post processed, right-click any of the files, select AUTO ALIGN, click WAVEFORM and SYNC... 2-3 seconds later, its done.



Yes in some apps you need to know the quality levels that each side uses and more importantly, the frames per minute (FPS), but once that is known, it's a walk in the park. To make things more interesting, for me I push to the highest quality levels in all audio/video settings in an effort to get the most out of it.

For me, my biggest challege for a LONG TIME was to get **PERFECT** green screens, but in my next video, you will see the results... I've worked hundreds of hours over the years, made (can safely now say) thousands of test files and tweaked settings until I am finally satisfied in my next coming video (spent 9 hours over the last 2 days testing out a final setup for a video that I will soon be releasing).

 

[Rosie C]

Yeah, thats always a minor challenge until one learns all the best ways to get around it.

Yes, I have a little check list before pressing 'record'. It gets easier each time.

 

[dak]

Is there a reason folks don't just record to USB stick in the FR-8x? You don't get higher quality D/A and A/D conversion than not converting in the first place.

 

[kep]

Is there a reason folks don't just record to USB stick in the FR-8x? You don't get higher quality D/A and A/D conversion than not converting in the first place.

I'm not sure there is no conversion. Is there direct output to USB before the D/A?

 

[dak]

I'm not sure there is no conversion. Is there direct output to USB before the D/A?

Chapter 12, page 54:

Your FR-8x allows you to record your performance and the
performance of your band on the optional USB memory.
The resulting audio file is stored in the “My Recordings” folder.
The recording format is WAVE (not mp3), which allows you to burn
your recordings onto a CD using your computer.

It then continues that you have to (imagine that) press the REC button. When you are finished recording, you press the REC button again and are then prompted for filename etc.

This does not exactly sound like arcane wizardry so I wonder why people invent expensive and complicated workarounds involving various amounts of quality loss.