Hi All, Here is my two cents! A man is playing a piano.  If, while he
is playing the piano, the piano marks or punches a roll of paper, that
is a recording! Just like a flight recorder on an airplane.  The
movements of the piano or the airplane are recorded.  The music roll is
now a record of what the man did on the piano.  A second roll made from
the first is a copy of the recording.  If a person enters notes onto
paper using a cutter, then that is just a music roll.

Now let's talk Edison records and LPs.  Back in Edison's days all kinds
of tricks were used to get music onto those early cylinders.  Were they
recording?  Yes!  Even though most of the music never made it onto the
record, they were called records.

If someone enters notes into a music program and the notes are saved in
MIDI format, this is a MIDI file.  If someone plays a MIDI keyboard and
a MIDI file is created, this is a recording.

Piano rolls, LPs, Tapes, CDs, MP3s can all be recordings.  All these
formats require a piece of equipment in order to convert them back into
sound!  Recording devices only capture some of the music.  This is why
live performances are still preferred.  A recording made with a
recording piano and played back on the same piano would make other
methods look incomplete.  What saves other recording methods is the
ability to record multiple sounds.

Now here is a question: "If a player piano falls in the woods ... ?!"

John Conrad Kleinbauer