Sometimes it is necessary to employ the full range of the keyboard, hence I do not record using my MIDI controller, which has only 61 keys. However I can still get a somewhat decent recording from my acoustic piano. Although it's not of the best studio quality, it suffices for rehearsal and record purposes.
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The first step is to block out environmental noises. Close all the doors, turn on the air-conditioner. The hum from the cooling unit shouldn't interfere.
Set up the equipment as shown in the picture above. You need a piano (of course, duh!), a laptop installed with some recording software - for me I'm using Cool Edit Pro, which is now known as Adobe Audition after it was bought over and a microphone. I'm using the cheap computer microphone - the white thin one with the long bent stick.
Closeup shot of the laptop and the microphone wire. I use the lamp as support for the wire.
Cliffhanger? It's the micrphone dangling freely. The eggshells really look like rocky surfaces of a cliff! That contraption improves the sound quality by minimising echoes - echoey sounds make you feel more tired and drives you to give up playing more easily. Stupid me always thought that sound rises like hot air, so I used to open the top of my piano for the sound to go through. Apparently that's rubbish! The best place to put the mike for an upright piano is the soundboard (that's what the soundboard is for! For the sound to go through!)
