Recording audio file from Digital Piano using Audacity

[Anuja Darzi]

I have a digital piano. I want to record the music I play on it in my PC. My PC has dual boot system. I have Windows 7 and Ubuntu installed on my system. I got Audacity installed on both O.S. The Audacity on Windows 7 records the sound of piano very fine. But when I try the same in Ubuntu, it doesn’t record that file. Can someone help me with it?

[Shurod]

You can try reinstalling Audacity in Ubuntu, maybe the installation process went wrong the first time. You can try updating the sound drivers and other drivers that are required for connection of piano with Ubuntu. Check for the compatibility of Audacity with your piano, maybe the versions don’t match. If possible, you can also try connecting other musical devices like guitar or drum if they work with Audacity in Ubuntu.

[GALIENA]

I have used Audacity on various platforms and can tell you that the preferences remain same for every version of Audacity on every platform. The problem caused due to this is that some preferences don’t work as well as they work n other O.S. So from your question it seems that some setting in your preferences is not working fine with Ubuntu. If you have changed any setting, then might be it is causing problem. For restoring the default preferences delete the audacity.cfg file from /home/username/.audacity_data. See if it works now.

[BillieJ]

This type of problem occurs when the default hardware manager of Ubuntu fails to recognize the new hardware that has been connected to system. To overcome this difficulty, you can download Pulse Audio Device Chooser. This is a freeware detects the new hardware that is externally connected to system. It can also be used to detect new hardware on another system on a network. This is good for ubuntu. Check the compatibility and install it. It might solve your problem.

[Panop]

If your Ubuntu is not recognizing the external devices, then you can try installing Pulse Audio Mixer Applet. It works with GNOME panel to manipulate input and output devices. You can even manage multiple instruments if hardware permits. You can try using this applet and then connect you piano to it.

[DanielaA]

Have you ever connected some other such device to your system before or is it a first time you are connecting instrument like piano to your system. Maybe the sound card you are using is not compatible with version of Ubuntu you are using. Try figuring out the compatibility between sound card and Ubuntu before you proceed to take another step.

[Alfons]

If you have a outboard mixer or if you can manage one, you can try connecting it to your system. I have been user of Audacity for long time now and I know that Audacity on certain platforms do not accept musical instruments directly. Try connecting an outboard mixer & connect the guitar through it. This also helps in avoiding overloading of memory usage of sound card.