The sound engine in a digital piano are set to provide best sound in stereo mode. What if you want to perform live and record your piano sounds as WAV (not MIDI data) and hear it in stereo mode?
Simply connect your digital piano stereo outputs to an Audio Interface line-in that connected your DAW via USB port then monitor your performance via your the monitor speakers which are connected to to the output ports or headphones of your Audio Interface. But what about latency and delay?
Many audio interfaces are designed for line / mic inputs and not stereo inputs, also the output lines can only provide stereo sound when connected to Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) via USB. These audio interfaces are good for guitarist and singers but not for pianist and stereo synth or DJ desk. Because you simply hear a mix of mono output witch is awful.
In live performance you need to hear / produce the accurate best sound of your digital piano with no delay while recording to DAW. The simple way to achieve that is by having a professional audio interface that supports two inputs as stereo line signal and stereo outputs with Monitor Pan function.
The pair of line level inputs in your audio interface – where you connect up your digital piano stereo outputs – will send audio to your DAW and active monitors at the same time.
The pair of high-quality outputs in your audio interface – where you connect up your monitor speakers are perfect for sending audio to your active monitors but these outputs will not give you stereo signal in live performance (unless you are monitoring from your DAW via USB). Hens, your audio interface should have Monitor Mix feature and most importunely Monitor Pan function, this function is incredibly useful when live performing and recording a stereo source (such as digital piano) as it allows you to accurately monitor the stereo audio signal live without DAW involvement and with Ultra Low Latency or no delay at all.
Our Recommendation
- Get your studio a high-end USB Audio Interfaces or professional audio interface that support Monitor Mix and Monitor Pan features.
- If your piano doesn’t support balanced output signal or your audio interface doesn’t have line—level inputs then get a DI Box (Direct Injection) 2 channels and connect it between your digital piano stereo outputs and the audio interface MIC inputs. The DI box will reduce or eliminate the unwanted noise while preserving the detail tone of your piano sound.