Hi all :) I recently strayed into the realm of actual recording hardware after years of just using a line-in.

I have a Roland R-09. My question pertains to how on earth to use it with external mics. I found a really nice deal on a pair of MXL 990 and 991 that I'd like to use in tandem, but the problem with the R-09 is it only has two 1/8" inputs for each channel of a stereo mic. The MXL microphones (like most I imagine?) both have XLR connections.

I'm trying to record a piano, and would like to use the 990 for the soundboard and sustain, and the 991 for the brighter sound of the hammers and attack.

Unfortunately, I have no idea which cables I need or even how to go about doing this! I imagine I could use adapter cables (?) to get a mono channel out of each microphone and then layer them on top of each other on my laptop? If I sound stupid, it's because I barely know what I'm talking about :D

I'm in a university also, so I can't bring my computer to the room I want to record in (why I got the R-09 in the first place!). Portability is a must.

Does anyone have any ideas? Or suggestions for other cheap but not-too-crappy (<$200) microphones that would work well for recording piano? I noticed Roland sells a stereo microphone for the R-09, but I can't find any reviews on it so I'm very hesitant.

And I'm not even sure the R-09 has enough phantom power for the setup I want :?

Thank you for help/tips in advance!
-Erik