Making Your Pre-Selection Recording
A practical guide for applicants recording without a studio
Making Your Pre-Selection Recording
We assess every applicant on their musicianship and artistic communication — never on the cost of their equipment. You do not need a recording studio to submit a strong recording. With a little care and a few simple choices, an excellent recording can be made at home, at your school or conservatoire, or in a local hall or church. This guide explains how.
Start here: the single biggest improvement
If you take only one thing from this guide, let it be this. A phone is fine for your verification video, but it is not ideal for your audio. The microphones built into phones and tablets are designed for speech and video calls. They automatically squash a piano’s wide dynamic range, “pump” the volume up and down, and add processing you cannot control — so your softest playing is pushed louder and your biggest moments lose their power.
The result rarely sounds like you. Wherever you possibly can, record your audio with a separate microphone or recorder. This one change makes more difference than anything else.
Equipment That Makes A Real Difference (And is Often Borrowed For Free)
The simplest excellent option. Small devices such as a Zoom or Tascam recorder have good built-in stereo microphones, capture an honest, natural piano sound, and need no other equipment. They are modestly priced, and conservatoires, music departments and libraries often lend them.
A stereo USB condenser microphone with free recording software works well; it needs a little more setup but gives a clean result.
If a phone is genuinely all you have, even an inexpensive external microphone is a clear step up from the built-in one.
Ask your teacher, school, university, or a local recording enthusiast, choir or church. Many people own a recorder they rarely use and are glad to lend it, or to help with a session.
Choose Your Room
Pick a room that is neither too “live” nor too “dead.” A medium-sized room with a mix of hard and soft surfaces usually flatters a piano. Avoid very small, echoey, tiled spaces and avoid heavily carpeted, cushioned rooms that deaden the sound entirely.
A little natural room sound is good — it adds warmth and space. You do not need, and should not add, any artificial reverb.
Hunt down background noise before you play: fridges, air conditioning, heating, buzzing lights, traffic, ticking clocks, phones and computers. Switch off or unplug what you can, and choose a quiet time of day.
Place Your Microphone
Open the lid fully (on the long stick). Place the microphone roughly 1.5–3 metres (5–10 feet) out from the open side of the instrument, raised toward the height of the raised lid edge, and aimed into the piano. This captures a balanced blend of strings and room.
Open the top lid. Position the microphone above and slightly behind the pianist’s head, pointing down toward the open top; or place it in front with the top open. (Removing the lower front panel can also help the sound escape.)
Too close exaggerates hammer and pedal noise and can sound harsh; too far sounds distant and washed out. Aim for the sweet spot where the piano sounds full and present.
The Few Settings That Matter Most
Disable automatic gain / auto-level, noise reduction, and any “enhancement,” EQ or effects. These features fight against the piano’s natural dynamics. You want the recorder to capture exactly what happens in the room.
Play your loudest passage first and set the recording level so it peaks comfortably below the maximum — around −6 dB is a safe target. If the meters hit the very top, the sound “clips” (distorts), and that cannot be undone.
If you can, record uncompressed WAV at 24-bit / 48 kHz. If you must use MP3, choose the highest quality setting (320 kbps).
Put phones in airplane mode and silence notifications, so nothing breaks your single continuous take.
Always Do A Test Take First
Record a minute or two that includes your loudest and your softest playing. Listen back on headphones, not on a phone speaker. Check that the loud passages are clean and undistorted, the quiet passages are still clearly audible, and the balance sounds natural. Adjust the level or microphone position, then record your real take.
Your Verification Video
Record the video on a fixed camera (a phone on a stand or tripod is perfect), in a single unbroken shot.
Frame it so that you and the keyboard are clearly visible throughout. The video confirms that the performance is a single, live, continuous take by you — it is not judged for picture quality and is never part of the artistic assessment.
Start the audio and video together so they capture the same performance.
Before You Upload — A Quick Checklist
One continuous take, with no edits, splicing, pitch or timing correction, or AI enhancement of any kind.
No spoken introduction or talking.
Both an audio file and a simultaneous fixed-camera video of the same performance.
Files named with your surname, first name and date of birth (e.g. Surname_Firstname_YYYY_Mmm_DD).
The name and contact details of your recording supervisor to hand — this can be any responsible adult who was present and can confirm the take was live and continuous.
Every file checked to confirm it plays correctly.
A Final Word
Do not let equipment worries overshadow your playing. A simple, honest recording of committed music-making will always speak louder than a polished one with little to say. We look forward to hearing you.
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