You play a chord on the keyboard and hear every note twice, a few milliseconds apart. You record a beautiful piano part, open the project a month later, and the track is silent. Both are routing mistakes, not faults, and both are covered in the manuals for the gear on your desk.
The studio setup essentials are simple once you separate two kinds of signal: audio and MIDI. Here is how to connect a Casio keyboard, a Roland instrument and a Behringer interface or mixer so that each one does its job.
Studio setup essentials: audio and MIDI are different paths
Audio is sound. MIDI is a set of instructions, such as which note was played, how hard and for how long. It carries no sound at all. A MIDI track replays only if the instrument, or a software instrument, is there to turn those instructions into sound.
That explains the silent track. It was a MIDI recording, and the sound it was played on is no longer connected.
| Signal | What it carries | Typical connection | What to check |
| Audio | The sound itself | Line or headphone output to an interface input | Mono or stereo, level |
| MIDI | Notes, velocity, controllers | USB or 5-pin MIDI | Port, channel, track routing |
| Monitoring | What you hear | Interface output to speakers or headphones | Output assignment, level |
MIDI dates from 1983 and still uses the same idea: 16 channels per connection, so one cable can control 16 different sounds. Roland’s founder, Ikutaro Kakehashi, and Dave Smith of Sequential shared a Technical Grammy Award in 2013 for its development.
Connect a Casio keyboard for recording and control
Casio keyboards vary a lot in their connections. Find your model in the casio manuals directory and look at the rear-panel diagram before buying any cables.
Recording the keyboard’s own sound
Some models have dedicated line outputs; others only have a headphone jack. If you use a stereo headphone output, a breakout cable splits it into left and right for two line inputs on the interface. Start with the keyboard volume low and raise it.
Do not plug a stereo output into one mono input. The sound can become thin, and parts of it can cancel out.
Using it as a MIDI controller
Many recent Casio keyboards send MIDI over USB, and some also have 5-pin MIDI ports. Plug it in, enable it as a MIDI input in your DAW (digital audio workstation) and route it to a software instrument. Install a driver only if the manual says one is needed.
Set Roland routing and save your sounds
Roland makes everything from stage pianos to synthesizers and sound modules, and its manuals use their own terms for patches, tones and parts. The roland manuals directory has the receive-channel settings and the write procedure for each model.
Channels and parts
In the DAW, choose the MIDI output port that reaches the Roland instrument, then set the track’s MIDI channel to the channel the instrument receives on. On a multitimbral instrument, each part listens on its own channel, so channel 1 can play piano while channel 10 plays drums.
Write it, or lose it
On many Roland instruments, an edited sound is temporary until you save it with the Write function. Power off before saving, and the edit is gone.
For a project you want to reopen in a year, do three things:
- Write the edited sound to a user memory.
- Back up the instrument’s data, if the manual describes how.
- Record the part as audio as well as MIDI.
A patch name in your notes is not enough. Presets can be overwritten, and the instrument itself may not be on the desk next year.
Connect Behringer interfaces and mixers
Behringer, part of Music Tribe, makes both audio interfaces, such as the U-Phoria range, and mixers, such as the Xenyx range. They do different jobs:
- An audio interface converts sound for the computer and usually gives each input its own track.
- A mixer combines signals. Many USB mixers send only a stereo mix to the computer, so you cannot rebalance the parts afterwards.
Check which you have in the behringer manuals and look for driver requirements or class-compliant operation, which means no driver is needed on most operating systems.
Setting the input level
Connect the keyboard to a line input, play the loudest passage and raise the gain until the meter moves well but never reaches the top. A common target is peaks around −12 dBFS in the DAW. That leaves room for loud moments without clipping.
Direct monitoring and the double sound
Direct monitoring sends the input straight to your headphones without the computer’s delay. If you also have software monitoring switched on in the DAW, you hear the signal twice. Use one or the other.
Fix doubled notes, silence and noise
Doubled notes
When a keyboard plays its own sound and the DAW echoes the same notes back to it, every note sounds twice. The fix is Local Control Off, where the instrument supports it. The keys then send MIDI only, and the DAW decides what plays. Turn Local Control back on when you play without the computer.
A silent track
Follow the signal from the source:
- Is the instrument powered, with its volume up? Does the interface meter move?
- Does the computer see the interface, and is the DAW set to use it?
- Is the track’s input correct, and is it armed or monitoring?
If the track meter moves but you hear nothing, check the track’s output and the interface’s monitor routing.
Hum, hiss and distortion
| Problem | Likely cause | First step |
| Distortion | Clipping at one stage | Find the first stage that clips and lower it there |
| Hiss | Low source level, high gain | Raise the source, lower the gain |
| Hum or buzz | Ground loop between devices | Disconnect cables one at a time; use balanced cables |
Never remove the earth connection from a mains plug to stop hum. If the problem persists, a DI box with a ground lift is the safe option.
Leave a factory reset until last. It erases user sounds and settings, so back them up first and follow the procedure for your exact model.