Opinions wanted on piano recording quality

[newyorker42]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate honest and constructive criticism on this recording I made of a solo piano. Would love it if the mavens of this forum in particular chimed in... don't hold back on anything that might make me do better with the next recording.

Details about the instrument, the equipment, mic placement, room, etc. to follow but don't want to color anyone's thoughts.

http://afterpostmodern.com/bach_prelude12_snippet.wav

John

[recall]

I liked it.

Sounded warm and natural/effortless without the glassiness of some solo piano recording.

I'm by no means an authority on these types of recordings. I tend to record bands live then overdub, but what I can say i that I really likd the sound, and from an emotional level it worked for me.

Best of luck with it.

[newyorker42]

Thanks, recall, for the kind words.

I guess since no one else has chimed in I'll go ahead and reveal what was going on here. I'm trying to figure out how to record a piano in a noisy NYC apartment (not so much neighbors as unpredictable cab honking and mini-diesel trucks whipping by). So, in this recording, I've got two DPA 4006TLs just inside the lip of the piano at the curve. The mics are about 18 cm apart. I spaced them closely because I wanted to try to emulate the sound of the mics being farther away (i.e., less stereo image), which is how I like to hear classical recordings. I then added some convolution reverb after the fact to fake the distance.

One person I know commented offline that there doesn't seem to be any highs and lows in this recording, and it is true. This Bach piece was written within a small range of the keyboard. It has a four octave range, but 90 percent of the notes are in the two octaves in the middle of the keyboard.

The piano is an Estonia 190L, which has a mellow and "European" type tone (fundamental emphasis as opposed to string-y overtones). The recording actually does sound like the piano, like it or not.

I wish I could get a little more presence out of the recording, but I think it is the source material and the instrument that is limiting that.

Suggestions anyone?

John

[Westmalle]

My € 0.02:

I think a good piano recording needs to be in a good hall.
But OK.

For an appartment recording, with added reverb, to reduce to traffic noise,
I think it is OK.

But if possible, I would record it further away from the piano!! I don't like the sond of the hammers.
To make it more bright, maybe the piano can be played louder, or , maybe it needs to be tuned slightly more stretched.

[joelpatterson]

Sounds good, no, sounds excellent, perfectly modern. If you demand that I offer something akin to criticism, I think I'm hearing a kind of "stuffy nose" effect from the reverb? This is getting into the realm of very pissy esoterica, but I think it might sound more natural if the reverb was delayed, in time, so that the lushness it adds doesn't compete directly with the new notes being sounded? It's like there's a bed of reverb and the articulation of the new notes gets lost, a little. I think the "pensiveness" of the Bach would benefit if you made the reverb even longer, almost an effect, like the player is alone in a vast hall, communing with his muse.

Great job, and when I hear the conditions you were working under, congrats!