Audio-in: used to input commercial CD tracks for playing al

1 Feb 2010, 22:08

I am trying to do my homework on whether to get a Juno G, Korg M50 or Yamaha MO6. I am checking out YouTube videos on each instrument & I'm seeing people use the "Audio-In" jack on the back of the Juno G to record bass & guitar directly to one of the 4 audio tracks. One of my goals in getting a synth keyboard is to improve my playing and ability to play in a "virtual group" where I program the backing instruments. 3 questions:

1) To anyone's knowledge, do either the Yamaha or the Korg let you record audio in directly? I think the answer is no.
2) On the Juno-G, could you "record in" actual records, CDs, cassettes, etc. and then play along with them? This would seem to be a great practice tool for someone wanting to learn styles.
3) if the answer to 2) is YES, does anyone know of any software that allows one to remove vocals or other instrumental parts on records/CDs, etc. so they can make their own "Music Minus One" practice recordings?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Audio-in: used to input commercial CD tracks for playin

1 Feb 2010, 22:35

1) Correct. Yamaha and Korg do not have multitrack audio recording, sampling, or inputs for that matter. Yamaha aligns itself with the PC for recording. The funny part is, does it even include a DAW like Cubase LE?

2) You can record anything you want. There are two 1/4" inputs for stereo line-in, or you can use the Left channel as a single microphone input. You'll need to upgrade the RAM and buy a CF card/PCMCIA adapter to store your samples tho. @ $30 or so.

3) Software exists - usually they work on the principle vocals are panned center so it attempts to remove them accordingly. As you can imagine, that doesn't translate so well in real-life, other instruments could be center too.

Actually, Juno-G has a center-canceler effect in the input FX. I haven't tried it, but would imagine it works to a point. It does allow you dial in a low-high frequency range; that should help.

Re: Audio-in: used to input commercial CD tracks for playin

1 Feb 2010, 23:29

Thanks dbijoux. I've been reading the forum the past couple nights & I find your comments informative & helpful. I appreciate the reply. Cheers.

Re: Audio-in: used to input commercial CD tracks for playin

2 Feb 2010, 20:13

2. Actually, you don't even have to record the audio in order to just play along in real-time with the music. I've done this a few times. I just hook up my iPod to the Juno-G's input, go into performance mode and pick the patch I want to play, go into the audio recording screen and set the input levels for the audio, click the back button on my iPod to get back to the beginning of the song after I've got the audio input level set, and play along on the keyboard. The keyboard patch is still active while the audio is playing live from the input. You would only need to record if you wanted to timestretch the audio to slow down the tempo while you're learning to play a difficult part.

Re: Audio-in: used to input commercial CD tracks for playin

2 Feb 2010, 20:59

lawndart: so in that way (which sounds relatively easy) you can use the Juno G both as a practice tool (to play along) & also to learn the individual parts you want to play via the timestretch?

I would ask do a lot of Juno G users utilize the board's input for this purpose?

Also, is the timestretch feature easy to implement on the audio-in track? Is it the kind that extends the time without altering the pitch of the notes?

Re: Audio-in: used to input commercial CD tracks for playin

3 Feb 2010, 00:33

I know that the Juno-G is capable of timestretching audio, but I haven't personally used that feature yet. The main takeaway point is that you don't have to waste time to record the audio or waste space on your flash card saving the whole song just so you can practice playing along with it at normal tempo. Once you've got the input level set how you want it, you just hit play on your external audio source and start jamming along immediately.

Re: Audio-in: used to input commercial CD tracks for playin

3 Feb 2010, 02:26

Yeah, the Juno has timestretch algorithms built-in, but you'll still only have about 10bpm until things start to warp. I suppose it could work well enough to practice a difficult part.

Good point on ripping songs, the Juno-G doesn't support mp3 so they are going to take a decent amount of space as .wavs (50-100mb). The Stage and Sonic Cell do play mp3's for backing tracks.