Hardware

• Yamaha Clavinova CLP-124 (manufactured 1992)
• Ensoniq AudioPCI (CT4810 / ES1373)
  • XP default drivers are the best, supposedly

Software

• Audacity — recording, editing, and MP3 encoding
  • Using the LAME mp3 encoder
  • wiki: recording tips
  • google search
  • line-in tips (more)
• winLAME — encoding to MP3

Notes

• general tips
  • motherboard audio, especially for recording, is likely utterly completely shit (my laptop is SOOOOOO incredibly bad)
  • update your drivers!
• troubleshooting
  • slap on a pair of headphones, enable Software Playthrough, put the piano in auto-play mode (hold down MIDI/Transpose and the rightmost keyboard key), then turn on "Monitor Input" on the Meter Toolbar, and then tweak the various settings (this is VERY helpful. There actually MANY different settings/configurations to try, and most can be experimented with this way in real-time, to figure out exactly which does what)
• things to remember
  • connect the Clavinova's AUX-OUT to the Esoniq-AudioPCI's line-in (mic-in works on some cards, but line-in seems best for this one)
  • you actually do want to input stereo, because the Clavinova outputs distinct channels (bass more on right half, high notes more on the left half)
  • the Clavinova's volume slider DOES affect the aux-out volume... this is both good and bad...
  • despite the Clavinova's output being marked L/R, it seems I have to do some fancy cabling to get proper stereo output