I have been the owner of a Yamaha Avant Grand N1 for about a year. So far I have been playing on it like an ordinary acoustic instrument. However, I'm interested in utilising the digital capabilities of the instrument as well.

Re-playing what I have done is simple to do with the Avant Grand. Is there an easy way to transfer the re-played piece to a computer and get a similar sound quality from the loudspeakers of the computer? Is additional hardware required?

I'm also doing some composition, and it would be very useful for me to learn about the MIDI format, and interfacing between the Avant Grand and composition software like Sibelius. Any tips?

Recording the piano couldn't be easier. I typically record my playing in the piano using the piano's own internal 'recorder' and then send that information via the 1\4" outputs to my wife's laptop.

I use Audacity, a freeware recording program. Once the levels are set so there's no peaks over 0dB (I typically have the peaks at -6dB), I'll export the recording (using Audacity) to a mp3 or wav format.

This isn't a walk in the park, you'll have to spend some time learning Audacity, but the menu headings will send you in the right direction.

Thanks Dave, I'll check out Audacity. Hope I'll be able to make it work.

I'll pass on one tip that I discovered rather late in usage.

The signal from my piano was too hot for my wife's laptop and I never ventured into Control Panel\Sound deep enough to see that I had control over the sensitivity of the 'mic' input.

Once I adjusted that sensitivity level (as a result of a suggestion from a forum member) recording levels became much easier to control.