I do most of my practise on a Yamaha P150 electric piano. It would help a lot if I could record myself practising and play it back but the P150 doesn’t have any built in means of doing so. It does have MIDI in and out sockets so I know it could be connected to a computer, but as the piano is upstairs at the front of the house and the PC is downstairs at the back this isn’t really a practical option! I don’t need a fancy box of tricks, just something that will record and playback. Money’s a bit tight too so I’d probably be looking for second hand. Can anyone advise me what I should be looking for? thanks

MIDI doesn't send audio information, so that's not really much of an option unless you have a good virtual piano VST or something on your PC to record with.

According to Yamaha's website, your piano has:

LINE OUT (L/MONO, R; unbalanced, 1/4" phone); PHONES

Sockets, so you can record from the Line out with a cable like this..



2x1/4" phone (TRS) to 3.5mm jack. You can put that into the line in of a laptop/PC or something and record via Audacity.

Otherwise... one of these to connect to a hi-fi or cd-recorder (although some might have a 3.5mm jack).



2x1/4" phone (TRS) to 2 x RCA

HTH

Many thanks for the tips Solari. I've actually just downloaded the product manual, which I didn't have before. I've found the following in it:

"Another simple MIDI setup is to connect the P-150 to a sequencer, as shown in the following example. In this case, the sequencer is used to record the note, program change, controller, etc. data as you play the P-150,and then play it back using the P-150’s internal voices. You can start and stop the sequencer using the P-150’s [PS] buttons"

This seems to suggest that I could record myself using a sequencer and then play it back through the piano itself. However, that's only my interpretation and I have very limited knowledge of these things - I don't even know what a "sequencer" is! Am I reading this right, or does it mean that the sequencer only plays back the notes I'd played, and not my actual "performance" ? (hope this makes sense)

That's definitely a solution but I was under the impression you wanted to record the audio (cheapest solution too as you can use free software)!

Yes, you could connect the MIDI in and out between the PC and the piano but you will need a MIDI interface of some sort like a MidiSport if there's no USB connection on the piano. Play and record into something like Logic, Sibelius, Cubase and then play back using the MIDI out... I'm not sure if there's any freeware around that would do this for you though. Any decent sequencer will play back exactly what you played, including use of the pedal.

Personally, I would use a little portable recorder like the Olympus LS-10, LS-11 or similar




and use the cable mentioned above.



The nice thing about the Olympus is that it is small, easily pocketable, with good ergonomics and very easy to use. And the batteries last ages - 12 hours + for a couple of AA size.

Easy to listen to your recordings on the move and the built-in mics mean that you can easily use it to record lessons or concerts on an acoustic piano to evaluate your performance later.
I have one of these which I take with me all the time - it's a great little machine.

The Olympus looks interesting - I didn't realise you could do "line in" stuff.



I bought an external sound card for my digital piano - it has a little pre-amp which lets you boost the sound a bit (i found that recordings made to through the standard sound card were always really quite). It has a proper micrphone socket + headphone out lets so you can record a track and then record some one singing over it as a separate file. You can then use Audacity to combine them.

You know, for years I've thought that the forums would benefit from a music technology subforum. That feeling has grown stronger as my own children grow. But then, maybe not, since ABRSM doesn't offer exams or encourage skills in that area.

On the other hand, the lack of external encouragement may be the very reason why we do need an MT forum. Not to mention, we need a place for Solari's expertise to be easily accessed!

There seems to be a huge selection of cheap portable recorders around now. For example see

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/category/rec...held-recorders/

The only one I've used is the Zoom H2 which is more than good enough for "domestic" use. I like the look of the Blue Microphones "Blue Mikey" which turns your iPod into a stereo recorder for 60 quid.