No 'front line in' option new laptop to digital piano

It is disappointingly common for laptops to have rubbish sound cards for recording - even on very expensive laptops. For most users the only use of the sound card is for playing videos on YouTube and using a microphone for Skype/Google Voice and so on. In a highly competitive market, few manufactures “waste money” on the sound card - it’s one area where they cut corners to keep the price down. This has given rise to a huge range of “add on” sound card upgrades.

The most cost effective sound card upgrades tend to be USB sound cards.

I use a Behringer UCA 202 (about $30) which is hugely better than the built in sound card on my laptop. The UCA 202 is a “no frills” device and has only “stereo line in”, “stereo line out” and a headphone socket. There is a volume control for the headphones, but no level control for either the line in or out, so it is necessary to adjust the output level of the thing you are recording (the keyboard) and adjust the playback volume with your amp/speakers when playing back from the Line Out. I’ve had mine for years and use it to record from a mixing desk and output to a good quality amplifier and I’m delighted with the sound quality. I wrote a review of the device here: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/sound-card-reviews/8375/23