Sound Output - It's a Dealbreaker

Geek out about your keyboard, MIDI controller and any other equipment you're using with Playground!
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LTChance
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:27 pm

Sound Output - It's a Dealbreaker

Post by LTChance » Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:47 pm

I saw a few posts on this already, but nothing with specifics. I've got some specific questions, so please forgive the new topic.

I've been playing for about six months on an old spinet acoustic piano using the "Simply Piano" app, which detects the notes you play through an iPad microphone. I've just about maxed out what I can get from that app, but it motivated me to buy a new digital piano, a Yamaha CVP-705, and to look into options to keep learning. Playground Sessions seems ideal, but I can't believe the only sound output option is to listen to my laptop speakers.

I saw a few threads asking how to get the application to use a digital piano's speakers, but the official response seems to be, "turn the speakers down on your $7000 piano, and listen to our midi output on your dinky laptop." I can only hope that the specially recorded and constructed midi output of my Yamaha's piano voices is far superior to whatever Playground Sessions is using (if it's not, I'd rather not know), and the speakers are certainly far superior. I'm surprised that the app does not work with digital pianos to provide a better listening experience.

That being said, I figure some people have developed work-arounds to use their digital pianos to output their practice sessions, and I would like to hear from you!

Specific questions/ideas:

1) Can I just route the output of my laptop back to the piano? - Seems pretty straight forward, but I'd still be using the apps midi sounds instead of the pianos. Are there any other issues with this idea? Latency?

2) Is it possible to turn the sound in the app all the way down just for the keyboard output? i.e. the app could play the background music and instruction sounds, but my piano would output the piano sound. Maybe I could combine this solution with #1 and have everything out of the piano speakers, too?

3) How do you maximize your listening enjoyment during your practice sessions?

4) Any word on if and when the app will be built to better integrate with digital pianos?



Thanks!

Laurensss
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:20 am

Re: Sound Output - It's a Dealbreaker

Post by Laurensss » Wed Jul 05, 2017 1:07 pm

Option 2) is possible (use the sounds / speakers of your piano) and works great, but not with headphones unfortunately.

LTChance
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:27 pm

Re: Sound Output - It's a Dealbreaker

Post by LTChance » Wed Jul 05, 2017 1:27 pm

Well, turns out that it wasn't a deal breaker. I just couldn't resist signing up with the 4th of July deal and a long weekend to play with it. I went with option 2 and it works great. I haven't needed to use head phones yet, but with midi output to the computer you'd just be missing the accompaniment in your headphones.

Loving the program so far. Almost through the rookie lessons and close to being able to play Lean on Me at 100% every time - still making mistakes on one section sometimes.

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sw1tch73ch
Posts: 539
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 1:23 pm

Re: Sound Output - It's a Dealbreaker

Post by sw1tch73ch » Wed Jul 05, 2017 5:20 pm

The challenge with trying to route MIDI signals to the MIDI device is a lot of, perhaps even most, people do not have a full set of orchestra and electronic voices on their devices. Examples are the Yamaha CLP series or Arius Series pianos. The compromise was, for programming consistency, to create the accompaniment as an audio file sync'd to the tempo of the MIDI part and then just use a sampled piano as the voice for your piano playback. You get separate control of the MIDI Piano and the Accompaniment Audio File volumes so you can mute the piano voice of the computer and use your keyboard's superior piano voice. The folks with the lessor setups can still get all the sound in one set of headphones. Usually the sound from the laptop is fine if you aren't trying to play through the standard wimpy laptop speakers.

Your CVP-705 has an AUX Input so that you can route the sounds of the laptop headphone jack into the CVP with the appropriate cable. The accompaniment isn't MIDI - it's an audio file. You would still want to turn the Playground Sessions piano sound to minimum and use the piano sound from the Clavinova. At least you can get the audio file playback through your much better speakers.

I have the output of my computer going via a small mixer to a component stereo amp with a rather large subwoofer and decent smaller speakers and then balanced so the sub doesn't overwhelm everything else. I also have the audio from my digital piano routed to that stereo amp through the same mixer. The component stereo system has even better speakers and more power than my piano, so it's an upgrade for the audio either way.
== Just keep playing. Just keep playing. Just keep playing, playing, playing! ==

-- jbs --

LTChance
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:27 pm

Re: Sound Output - It's a Dealbreaker

Post by LTChance » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:14 am

Thanks for the aux input tip! I'll give it a try.

Paulopedia
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed May 30, 2018 1:25 am

Re: Sound Output - It's a Dealbreaker

Post by Paulopedia » Wed May 30, 2018 1:35 am

I just joined Playground Sessions about an hour ago. I'm using my Midi audio interface to connect with my workstation. The input is from my Casio PX-560. The output is from Pianoteq 6 (YC5 Acoustic Grand). I just turned down the volume on my digital piano and on the Playground Sessions piano. That way I can play using the far superior sounds of any number of Sampled and Modeled Piano VST Libraries and my Studio Monitors.

An audio interface and a real workstation are the way to go IMHO.

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