Recording volume issue Yamaha P515

It sounds to me like it is working correctly. With any luck someone else with a P515 will be able to check whether their unit has the same characteristic.

A digital recorder has to be able to accept the maximum input it can receive from a source without exceeding the 0dB clipping level, which results in severe distortion. Two immediately apparent factors that contribute to the maximum level that could occur in this unit are the polyphony and external input.

The P515 has ample polyphony to allow every note on the keyboard to sound simultaneously, so even though this may not be feasible, to prevent distortion in a recording where large numbers of keys play at fortissimo, the level of a moderately played chord will be proportionately low.

In addition, the second factor is that recordings can include input mixed in from external sources (AUX, Bluetooth etc), so this input added to the performer's playing must also be able to be recorded without hitting the 0dB clipping level. If there was insufficient headroom remaining in reserve when recording the P515's own output, people would be complaining that the recordings were distorted when they played along with external music files.

It's my impression also that the performance recording facility is intended to allow you to assess your playing performance, not as a proper alternative to something like a DAW for multi-track recording and editing.

As I read it, PianoPadawan is using the internal performance recorder to record directly to a USB drive, no recording app is involved until the resulting file is pulled into a WAV editor. When you mention getting about -3dB, is that in a file recorded this way?

Thanks for the quick response! The recording clipping doesn't sound encouraging, although that would be curable with the voice volume setting no doubt. However unless PianoPadawan has not noticed their voice volume setting is abnormally low, it suggests their P515 is behaving differently to yours.