Strange resonances/"buzziness" in high range of digital keyboard?

[dizzydizz]

Hi all!  I'm a classically trained pianist but have no prior experience with digital music or any experience trying to record myself playing.

I own a Yamaha P-515 keyboard.  When I play, the volume is set to about 70%, and I'm using the "CFX Grand" soundfont thingy (it's the default piano sound when you turn on the piano).

I am trying to record myself playing with the following setup:

* I have two stereo cables, L and R, plugged into the back of the piano, and those cables are plugged into...

* A Zoom AMS-24 Audio Interface (which has a toggle for "Mic Line" vs "Guitar"—I chose "Mic Line", and all the other knobs are set to 5), which itself is connected via a USB-C cable to...

* My Macbook, which is running Garageband.

I can record myself just fine with this setup, and it "sounds" exactly like I played it—Garageband accepts it as an input instrument, I play a song, and when I'm done, I stop recording and I can export the result to an MP3 file.

However, I'm noticing a few notes sound "buzzy"/strange/have some unwanted resonances, particularly in the upper registers.

I can't really hear these resonances with my ear when I'm playing (the sound plays over the built-in piano speakers), and I actually can't hear them as well when I'm listening to the recording with my nice headphones, but it's very noticeable when listening over laptop speakers or phone speakers.  And since lots of people listen on those devices, I want it to sound not-terrible for them :)

If I were recording via a microphone or something, I would suspect something physical was going wrong (e.g. something in the room buzzing/vibrating).  However, this is just "recording" straight off the line, right?  Like it's just recording from the cables I have directly plugged into the piano.  So I assume whatever is making those notes sound wrong has nothing to do with the physical room.

Here is a short recording that demonstrates the problem: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18LQvlTq2tKUxFhJAFJc_6lCYRQUtbeJE/view?usp=sharing (The file is also attached to this post here.)  It is particularly noticeable in the notes I play at 0:03 through 0:09.

Does anyone know what might be going wrong with my recording setup?  Or, barring that, does anyone know some way to fix those funky/weird resonances in post?  (Is there some Garageband tool that can filter those out?)

Sorry that I don't really know many technical terms for music recording or anything like that, but I'd really appreciate any help y'all can offer.  Thanks!

(And, since this is a video game remixing forum: special kudos to anyone who recognizes the melody in my recording!)

 

[Master Mi]

I assume you mean the subtle ringing of the piano.

But I think that's just part of the piano sound, or rather the effects (reverb, delay, or chorus) used for this piano preset (if possible, try playing this piano VSTi without effects, then add individual effects one by one until you find the one that bothers you).

I've checked your audio sample with my studio monitor speakers (Yamaha MSP 3) and with my studio headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro), and I could barely hear the ringing in the sample.

I also loaded the audio sample into my DAW and checked for possible clipping artifacts.
But even there, at least as far as the output is concerned, no distortion due to overdrive was detectable.
However, you might want to check the input value again or try reducing the input volume.

Otherwise, I wouldn't let laptop speakers or smartphone speakers deter me in this regard.
Integrated laptops in particular tend to massively overemphasize the high frequencies in the sound, which, in combination with reverb and delay effects, can produce a really unpleasant, jingling sound.

I think I experienced something similar back then when I listened to the piano intro of my Crisis Core remix on my mother's laptop speakers.
It might be a completely different type of piano - but maybe just compare it to your piano sound on your laptop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjndFXyi2us

...

Based on my hearing and the audio playback devices I use, your piano sounds really good. ))