I was wondering how others record their acoustic piano playing. I find that the recording methods I have are not sophisticated enough to record with sufficient clarity to be a true representation of my playing.
On the one occassion I have been professionally recorded I was blown away by (i) how I sounded .. just like a real pianist (ii) how different it was to what I have achieved recording at home.
For example where do you locate your mike, piano lid open or closed.
I have a (i) Walkman with a microphone, (ii) a dictaphone (iii) a recording feature on the stereo with a mike stretched across the lounge balanced pecariously on the sofa! None of these work very well
What do the rest of you do??

I started trying to record my piano playing last weekend. I was using a mike straight into my PC with the mike very close to the piano with the piano lid open. I recorded to a wav file and then used Audacity to reduce the noise. The tone does not come across very well and I'm going to try different mike positions. The recording did help me work on sections where my playing wasn't as smooth as I would like.

della

I have a mic so I recorded me playing piano by putting the mic into my laptop. Never again- it was terrible!

sorry to say, you can't expect to record a 'true representation of your playing' with a setup like that. you need two good mikes on stands and if you record in a small room you need a reverb unit [an effects unit usually has several delay lines and room-size reverbs from dry to cathedral] and the acoustics of your room come into it so much so maybe some way to equalise might help.

different instruments need different miking techniques which doesn't mean you need lots of mikes if you have a couple of good ones, and positioning them [per instrument] depends on the effect you want, sometimes needs great skill. i would be wrong to lead you thinking a single style and model of mike could do every job but you can get good allrounders.

there's no substitute for experience but therere good books. the library may have some. search 'home recording' on amazon.
magazines like sound on sound have 'series' on recording techniques.

you can do a lot on a small budget but you need to know what. you don't even need digital recording. i still use tape and it's a sight easier to capture, more tolerant of overrecording, as long as you get it in digital before you start editin and stuff.

a good start is to isolate the recorder and mike from any unwanted vibrations, like proppin the mike on top of the piano u r recording or people walking across the floor while u r recording. any mike should be on a proper stand prefereably cradled from shock. you also need a recorder that lets you set the record level. i think you can on the windows sound recorder. it gives adequate results at 22kb stereo but if i remember the 'echo' sounds a bit horrible.

Everytime I record, it sounds terrible. My piano is in the living room so it's quite big. I need to put the boost on but that just ruins everything. I've been told that if you gat a peice of paper, roll it into a cone, stick it to the microphne and point it towards the piano. It should amplify the sound and block any other sounds around the room.

I've been experimenting, trying to record my piano... I've found if I normalise it twice you can almost hear me *laughs* my mic has a good long cord which helps - I didn't think it was going to reach all the way downstairs! but it does - but I don't really know where to put it to have some chance of picking up the sound best... Any ideas? I know it's not going to be perfect with one mic and Audacity but it'd be interesting if I could get it to record even if the recordings weren't that great.

I have made some recordings on my mobile phone. Definitely not recommended!

you trying to record on a computer? and is it an upright piano?
is the mike directional [cardoid]?
if upright you need the mike on a stand and best to take the front off the piano and point it about half way across the frame about 1 metre away as a start. try out different positions, distances and see what's best. a single mike doesnt work at the bass end. very boomy. if you haven't a stand duck-tape it to the back of a tall chair or lamp stand with the lamp off and so it points the right way.

it may be ok with the piano front on. you can record pointing it inside the lid but you have to experiment. different mikes have different pickup patterns called polar graphs. 'omni' pick up everything all around. 'cardoid' pick up more directionally to the front and some behind too. then sensitivity. some arent sensitive and need to be miked close. some are noisy. a cheaper mike will probly be omni so the room acoustics come into it.
so its best to start with a set up like i described then work from there.

if ur recording into a computer it has to be nearby obviously but not so close for the fan to interfere - that's the prob of all acoustic recording into a computer plus the type of soundcard you have.

good luck.

you trying to record on a computer? and is it an upright piano?
is the mike directional [cardoid]?

>>> Yes, yes, don't know

if ur recording into a computer it has to be nearby obviously but not so close for the fan to interfere - that's the prob of all acoustic recording into a computer plus the type of soundcard you have.

>>> it actually has a pretty long cable (the mic) so the fan shouldn't interfere as I'm not only a room or two away but a whole floor away

Thanks for the tips

About a few months before my exam, I recorded my three pieces on a digital voice recorder, and I could notice where I was going wrong. For example, I could hear when I was playing certain notes unevenly. I would do it now, but I can't find where I put my recorder!

Car Expert

Not an instrument but i always find that when you record yourself singing, it sounds really different...

On Audacity when i recorded from my digital piano it sounded ok...just a bit distorted at the edges, but you learn to listen over/get used to that.

Yes, you do sound very different to yourself "from inside" - I think that's got a lot to do with resonances in your head etc that other people can't hear. Same with speaking as with singing, I find.

I suppose its like hearing yourself leave a message on the answerphone..always SO weird!

The advice all sounds very technical. I get excellent results with an i-river MP3, using no extra microphones. It sits about 7 ft away from my (upright) piano on a cuddly toy (that's the trade secret - recording isn't anything like as good on a hard surface) on the mantlepiece. It's really easy to record and you can play it back on the computer or you can put it through external speakers.

I record myself and my pupils a variety of ways. Sometimes I use a simple voice recorder when I just want to hear a rough playback for tempos etc and I often use it for duet stuff i.e. to record one part first and then play along to it for the kids to sing along to. If I want a more professional recording I use my Korg PXR4 porta-studio and its internally built condenser microphone. This is great for when someone is singing to piano accompaniment for example. I find it works best when the singer holds it about the same distance as a microphone and the balance between Voice and piano (in the background) comes out quite nicely. Alternatively, I record the accompaniment first on one track and then the voice is recorded over on track two. At home I can also record my Digital Piano and keyboard using midi and a combination of midi and live acoustic recording/singing. It all depends on the the music and situation.

Gae

recording yourself play is a fantastic way to learn

from my recordings i've learnt
1) rhythm needs to be sorted
2) more expression needed
3) anything else you pianists can tell me