<p>I am trying recording my piano playing with my PC this morning, and I plan to send the recordings to colleges as supplements. But the recordings sounded terrible!
Any suggestions how I can record my playing the piano at home easily?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Get a Zoom H1 hand held recorder for $99. Great recording quality, and it downloads easily onto your PC.</p>
<p>If you are just using a plain unmodified PC, the microphone and recording software included in most stock PC’s are not very high quality. One option would be to get a decent quality USB microphone (decent recording software is often included). Another would be to invest in one of the portable recording devices made by companies like Edirol and Zoom.</p>
<p>For another thing, recording a piano in a small room will usually not give very good results. Microphone placement is particularly important. In a small room, you just can’t get the microphone far enough away from walls, floor and ceiling to prevent problems caused by receiving both direct sound from the instrument plus only very slightly delayed reflections from nearby large flat surfaces.</p>
<p>If you can possibly record with a better microphone and in a larger space (like a church or auditorium) it is likely to sound much better. </p>
<p>There are a couple of very good, albeit somewhat technical, articles about recording grand and upright pianos at [The</a> Doghouse NYC - Recording the Grand Piano](<a href=“http://doghousenyc.com/articles/piano1.htm]The”>The Doghouse NYC - Recording the Grand Piano) and [The</a> Doghouse NYC - Feedback Q and A Recording the Upright](<a href=“http://doghousenyc.com/articles/upright.htm]The”>The Doghouse NYC - Feedback Q and A Recording the Upright)</p>
<p>I second woodwinds suggestion of the Zoom H1. The cost is less than that of many good microphones. If properly placed, the quality is sufficient for prescreening recordings.</p>
<p>BassDad is right that piano is almost impossible to record in a small room (i.e. even a large living room is not usually large enough to get a good recording). Piano tends to be difficult to record period, but impossible in a small space. </p>
<p>Find a church or school theatre with a good in-tune grand piano and ask if you can book the space for a couple of hours on a couple of different days. You will want to have time to adjust to the piano and to record at least a couple of takes on each selection that you will be recording. We found we did have to call around since some places wanted to charge a use fee (which is understandable); others were very happy to be able to help out by loaning us their space.</p>