My home keyboard is a Kawai CA 13 digital piano, and to record it I connect it to my Mac computer through the headphone jack on the piano. I use an inexpensive Behringer interface and record using GarageBand. I am fairly new to trying to record using GarageBand. I only have access to my digital piano for recording my piano efforts, but I'm not happy with the recording results. I realize it's just a digital piano, but even so I feel like if I were an expert on GarageBand, I'd be able to improve the sound results. I'm wondering if I should be getting a MIDI interface and trying to use "virtual piano" samples instead. With the Kawai CA 13, I can either record through the headphone jack or through a MIDI connection. I haven't tried MIDI yet. If you have a chance, I'd be grateful if you could listen to some of my recent recordings on my YouTube channel--they were made on my Kawai digital piano, and you can hear why I'm not happy with the recorded sound. Here's a link to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQkLPcd4uf2shG5bE1peQQg Thank you very much in advance for anything you can suggest on getting a better recorded sound. I know so little about it that there are probably many things I just don't know about that might help.

Thank you, Joe! It's really kind of you to share your knowledge with me--I really appreciate it! I started out studying classical piano, and my ideal of the perfect piano would be a top drawer Steinway concert grand, the piano sound that you hear in most classical piano recordings. Though some Yamaha concert grands can be great pianos as well. But if I were rich, a top quality Hamburg Steinway concert grand would probably be my one-piano-for-all-music choice. I like to play ragtime and also lots of jazz renderings of songs from "the great American songbook." I once played a Shigeru Kawai grand piano in a Kawai piano shop, and it was a gorgeous piano--it was so hard to leave that piano! And it even had a better action than most Kawai pianos I've tried--which tend to have a heavy touch. I tried a Bosendorfer once in a piano shop in Chicago many years ago, and although I loved the midrange and bass, I found the treble range was a bit weak. I actually preferred the Yamaha concert grand that was right next to it for a more satisfying overall sound. But since I'm not likely to become rich, (sigh) I guess I'll be trying to do the best I can with my Kawai digital piano. I will try experimenting with the reverb as you suggested. Though when I tried it before it seemed to produce a fake electronic sort of sound that didn't sound realistic. My basic problem is that I feel the recorded sound I'm getting sounds overly electronic instead of like a real piano. I hate that, but I realize I'm recording a digital piano, so maybe there's not much I can do. But I have yet to try using MIDI, and I think I need to give that a go. I've read various comments online that "bash" the GarageBand piano sounds, but earlier I did test the GB Steinway piano sound, and I liked it a lot more than the sound I get from recording the Kawai digital piano! For me, at least, that sound would be a big improvement over what I've been getting. My (cheap--what I could afford!) Behringer interface doesn't have MIDI connections, so I'd need to get a MIDI interface cable to hook up to my Mac. Speaking of 3rd-party piano plug-ins, my older brother uses Pianoteq and loves it. The most realistic and satisfying MIDI piano sound I've heard so far is the setup used by Corte Swearingen in his American Piano Music videos. I'll quote his description of his setup here: THE PIANO The piano you hear in my video recordings is the legendary 1951 New York Steinway D Concert Grand that was hand-picked by Steinway & Sons for artist promotion and concert hall duties. This massive 9-ft instrument was signed by Glenn Gould, Rudolf Serkin, and other legendary pianists and has an exceedingly pure tone, clarity, and extraordinary dynamic range. It's been described by numerous concert artists as among the finest they've played. ​ THE TECHNOLOGY So how am I able to play and record on this 1951 Steinway grand? I'm playing the piano virtually - through the use of sampled technology. This Steinway piano was meticulously sampled by Synthogy and recorded in the Françoys-Bernier Concert Hall at Le Domaine Forget in the Charlevoix region of Quebec. Through the use of a virtual piano keyboard controller (The Kawai MP11SE), I am able to bring you performances of these American composers as voiced by this iconic Steinway. I hope you enjoy the sounds of these incredible American composers as played on this amazing American instrument! So I might ultimately try to copy his setup--get that Synthogy sampled Steinway software. I presume I wouldn't have to have the Kawai MP11SE controller in order to get the same sound. Or would I? I don't have the budget for buying a new digital keyboard. Anyway, I'm curious to know what you think of the sound he gets! Thanks again so much for taking the time to share your suggestions with me. My basic problem is just that I'd rather be practicing the piano than messing around with the technology of recording--but I guess there's no way around it. I have one very basic question for you about GarageBand: Should I use compression and/or the equalizer at all? I read somewhere that you shouldn't use the compressor when recording digital piano. For the last half dozen or so of my recording efforts, I turned off both the compressor and the equalizer. I don't even know--in my ignorance--if that's a bad or a good thing. Anyway, thanks again very much for your tips!

Thanks again for your time and thoughtful response! I wasn't aware that compression and EQ aren't necessarily needed for a good piano sound. I'll keep that in mind. I wasn't aware that the dynamic response of the keys might not automatically be a good match with a MIDI virtual piano. I'll definitely keep that in mind when I give MIDI a go. By the way, not that I could afford anything expensive at this time, but just for my information, in your opinion, which company puts out the best virtual piano sounds? I'm traditional in my tastes and generally find a high quality Steinway concert grand to be all I'd ever want in a piano. Though other makes can be excellent as well. My brother uses Pianoteq and "morphs" different virtual piano sounds into his own piano Frankenstein creation, but I'm not convinced by the results he gets. I'm just hoping to find something that sounds as much like an acoustic piano as possible and not "electronic." I guess that might be asking too much. Thanks again very much for your response--I'm much obliged to you!

I don't know, I guess I'm just not totally sold on virtual pianos. I'd honestly take just a decent upright acoustic piano over the fanciest virtual piano. I just don't feel that all the zillions of fine nuances of real piano sounds can be fully captured in virtual piano simulations. Then again, maybe my ears just aren't good enough to appreciate what virtual pianos are doing--no doubt that's true. But because I'm not familiar with or comfortable with recording technology, the honest truth is that I wish someone could just tell me exactly where to turn the various knobs and sliders to on GarageBand! The "master volume" and the "volume," the "noise gate," compressor and EQ things. I still haven't found a GarageBand guide that explains things easily for aging farts like me who frankly know next to nothing about this stuff. Most of the tutorials are way beyond my experience. I'd love to find a one-size-fits-all "quick and dirty" template for the settings on GarageBand that I can use every time when recording. Maybe that sounds unreasonable, but I always use the same volume level on the digital piano, always the same basic unaltered sound on it, and I want nothing more than to get as realistic a piano sound I can get with no "special effects." So I imagine there must be some ideal template that would give me the best recorded sound I can get on GarageBand, but I don't know what all the settings should be. I've tried pushing the volume sliders around and listened to the "Factory sounds" and whatnot, but I don't know what I'm doing. Just my own lazy fault, no doubt! Anyway, thanks again so much for your time and consideration. I'm really happy to get your input! Anything I can learn is good to know!

Hi Joe, It's really generous of you to explain all these things to me--I'm afraid I'm not worthy of your time and trouble! But I will try to keep in mind what you have written, and when I get a MIDI interface, I'll refer back to your comments above. Due to "budgetary constraints" I'll probably just get an inexpensive MIDI interface and then trying using the GarageBand Steinway sounds to see what results I can get. I'm really eager to try and get a better overall sound, though I don't have the patience to really study everything I should in order to get the best results. But I'm hoping that just a switch to MIDI and the GarageBand Steinway sounds will at least give me a generally more attractive overall piano sound. Just hitting a few "keys" in the "keyboard typing" for trying out the GarageBand Steinway gave me a better sound--I think, though as you say, I'd really have to try it out for awhile to know how I'd feel about it--than recording from the headphone jack of my digital Kawai. I've seen a few videos on "improving the sound of the GarageBand Steinway," so maybe later on I might check some of those out. Thanks again so much for your time and thoughtful responses, Joe. I must say I wish I had a friend who lived nearby who knew as much as you do about recording!