Record your Piano Playing using an Android or Windows device

This article is part of my Guide on How to Record Your Piano at Home. Being an Apple user, I demonstrate mostly using Apple products. However, this same advice applies equally well to Android or Windows.

What works on Apple …

I did a series of posts around how to record your piano playing at home using your smartphone.  I’ve received some good feedback that they have proved useful to my fellow pianists.  Being an Apple User, I mainly described how to do this using an iPhone and then showed some slightly more advanced audio and video editing techniques using the software that comes free with my MacBook.

… can be adapted for Android

I recently received a request through a Facebook Group asking could I do something which would show how to record on a ‘Tablet’.  The Tablet in question was not an iPad.  So what follows is some ideas on how you can take the very same advice and apply it to non-Apple products.

I have also created an eBook series with fuller details taking you from A to Z.  You can download Volume 1 here – which covers the basics of getting yourself set up to record and produce a credible result without needing to use a laptop or any kind of slightly more involved technique.

You might need to experiment

As there are probably hundreds of different types of tablets, phones and computers on the market.  Each brand and combination of equipment will give you slightly different options so you’ll need to do a little experimentation of course.  However, the basic principles hold true and, as you’ll see, even the different pieces of software you might want to use are incredibly similar.

Basic steps

Let’s start by thinking about the basic workflow and then the different component parts we need – without thinking necessarily about Tablet, Phone or Computer.  This is the basic workflow that I’ve taken you through in the other posts.

First we’ll record the Video and the Audio (best simultaneously on two different devices but can be done on one alone).  Next we process the audio (reverb, eq etc).  We then combine the Audio and Video files into a single file getting them synchronised properly.  We then take the combined file and do the overall Video Editing before exporting the result so that we can share it.

Of course, you don’t need to do the audio editing- you can record both the audio and video on the same device and move straight onto the video editing step.  Some very basic audio editing will be possible in your Video Editing software.

Essential Hardware

We’ll of course need some basic things – mainly a camera and microphone.

Probably free

First, we need a Camera. Most tablets and even computers have a camera built in. Here, in a sense, size really does matter.  Strangely, not the ‘physical’ size, but the size in terms of Mega Pixels.  The more Mega Pixels you have, the better and clearer your video will be.    The best thing to do is to try it out – just record something on the standard camera app and have a look at the video you get … are you happy?  If so, it’ll be fine.  Probably any tablet or smartphone will have a good enough camera. If not, then you might need a different ‘camera’ than the one on your device.  You might be able to use your DSLR or compact camera if you have one … or use this as the perfect excuse to treat yourself to a new phone.

You’ll need to buy

Next, you need a Microphone.  Again, most devices have one built in, however, to my knowledge, you’ll never get a reasonable quality of sound through them – especially when playing piano.  This is the only time I’ll say you really do need to think about external equipment.  Luckily, there is a good range available that will work easily with a variety of different equipment.  I use the Shure MV88 which, although originally specifically aimed at iOS devices now comes with a USB-C connector.  There is a Shure MV88+ that has been designed to use with both iOS and Android/Windows devices.

I actually have both and if you’d like to hear how they sound side by side, then you can watch this shoot-out video on my YouTube channel.

Essential Software

To go with our hardware, we of course need some software.

Free is OK

To record your video, your Android Device or Tablet will almost certainly have built in Video Recording capability – I’m sure you’ve used it before if not for video then to take pictures. Provided its camera is good enough there’s no real need to invest in additional software.  

Paid options are available

If you want to be more cinematic, I discovered an app called Filmic Pro. This is the app I use.  It’s a paid app – around £20 on the UK Apple App Store. Filmic Pro is also available for Android — double check on the Google Play store that it will work with your device first before you buy.  An app such as this enables you to control your device’s camera much better – more accurately setting focus, exposure, frames per second etc.  If you already understand all of these things, then it’s worth thinking about as the result will be better than just the standard camera app.  That said, an app like Filmic Pro is totally optional.

Now we’re ready to record

Once you have your mic plugged into your device, you will be pretty much good to go.  The device will automatically use the plugged in microphone over the built in one for you.  You can perfectly well record the Audio and Video on the same device, into the same file.  You just need go straight to the Video Editing step in the workflow (you’ll find good choices of apps to edit a simple video file right on your device – or you can download onto your computer and edit there). 

However, we will always get better results when we record the Audio and Video separately.  This is something I like to do.  I do this simply because it means I can put the microphone in the best place possible to capture the sound and put the camera elsewhere.  I can then edit the audio file separately.  

Audio Editing

I generally do this on my MacBook rather than my phone or ipad.  I showed you how to do this using Garageband in two posts (with associated videos) – one to add Reverberation and another to add Equalisation. If you’re a windows user, there are a number of free applications such as Audacity which do the same things. This includes the ability to use pre-sets rather than needing to work out complicated settings yourself. 

The user interfaces are often very to GarageBand and if you have seen my Tutorials on GarageBand, you might find you can intuitively work out what to do in any other app, Otherwise, you’ll see there are lots of tutorials available on YouTube no matter which app you finally choose.  In short, you’ll be able to drag and drop your audio file into the App and work on it there as I do in GarageBand.

Video Editing

The last piece of the equation is some video editing software to put all the pieces together.  For Mac Users, there is iMovie (which is free).  For Windows users, again, there are lots of options.  I’d recommend you look at either Filmora or Davinci Resolve.  Both get superb reviews, have free versions and give you all the basic things I’ve shown you in my videos on editing in iMovie.

I always first combine my audio and video files. This ensures they are synchronised first.  I then save the result to a new file which I subsequently use for my main editing.  Synchronising them is fairly straightforward.  You need to find the ‘speed editor’ control in your video software as anything more than a minute or two long tends to get out of synch.  It’s easy to adjust as I showed you in my video on Reverberation.

Interfaces based on the real world

The reason my ‘Apple Centric Advice’ on Audio and Video editing software translates very well to Android is that all the apps look extremely similar.  This is because they are designed to look like the physical equipment that was used previously and the commands tend to use the same terms that people were using long before the computer age (things like splitting, trimming, plugins etc.).  This makes translating advice from one piece of software to another quite straightforward.

To get ideas about what’s possible when editing, I recommend you check out my post on Simple Video editing … whatever application you end up using the main things will be extremely similar.

Accessories

Finally, there are a couple of accessories that you will almost certainly need.

The first is a Tripod (or two if you are recording audio and video on separate devices) and the second is an adaptor (or two) to hold your devices.

You’ll find a great range of tripods on Amazon for example.  They aren’t expensive and are a well worth the investment.  Trying to prop up your phone or tablet on a chair using books and things is definitely possible, but you’ll get a better result if you can put your device wherever it gets the best view. 

For more ideas on how to get the best results when recording your piano at home, check out my full guide.

Finally, you need an adaptor to hold the phone or tablet on the tripod.  In fact, lots of tripods now come with one of these for free – and it’ll be fine for your phone.  If you’re using a tablet, then you will need something bigger.  Again, you’ll find a good range of these on Amazon.

Transferring files

Another thing to think about is how to transfer files from one device to another (so from your phone to your computer for example).  I’m sure you’ll have done this many times but, if not, just have a google for how to do it … there are literally hundreds of options and the best one will really depend which computer and phone or tablet you have.  Services such as DropBox and Google Drive provide useful ways of moving files if you can’t do it directly.

Now you should be all set

I hope this has given you some ideas about how you can convert the advice in my very ‘Apple’ device videos – just remember that whatever equipment or software you use, it will be incredibly similar.  Let me know in the comments how you get on …. if you have specific questions I’ll do my best to answer them for you.

If you’re read this far, then don’t forget to download Volume 1 of my free eBook series.  This volume will be helpful as you work through your set up. 

I look forward to seeing the results of your own efforts.