miking upright piano...

[belairstudio]

All right I know......this is gearslutz and I'm not talking gear but....

After you buy the stuff you need to use it, right?


I'm a little out of knowledge about miking vertical pianos, I've always had to record those steinway coffins and it doesn't seem to work the same way....



Any suggestion??



ciao

[button]

Don't forget you can (very) easily remove the wooden structure in front of the player, then you have more scope for close micing. If you want the "John Lennon" sound, just hover a dynamic or two over the top

[HDGuru]

Something like this?

[belairstudio]

Hey, cool pic!!

This is what I'm trying, but with only 2 neumann Km88.

I took off the front cover, but dunno how to remove the piece covering the keys.
Looks like it's not removable......possible?


Anyway, the piano is not that great sounding and I have a track in protools I cut once on a steinway grand I'm comparing to.....obviously it's a ridiculous comparison, but results are sooooooooo different.

Steinway wide, My upright so dull.....the big difference is obviously the piano and the room....


.....but what can I do to open up top and bottom end without eqing too much?
Mike placement? Room placement?



Ciao

[Full Clip Audio]

I would suggest going for the room sound rather than shoving a mic inside the thing. I know that close micing pianos, violins and other instuments of the sort has been the trend for quite a while but IMO it sounds unnatural in many cases. No one is ever going to listen to a piano with thier head inside of it and you lose a lot of the beauty of the instrument and how it is meant to be heard. The same thing goes for a lot of other acoustic/classical instruments. I would try a nice figure 8 pair. thumbsup

[PlugHead]

IME,

I've miced the soundboard (back) of uprights more often than not: most of the time yielding great tone, and none of the hammer-strike sound with being in front of the strings - YMMV on any given piano, but - I tend to like the soundboard as the recording area - U67's, KM44's, or others like schoeps or DPA/B&K's can sound great on an upright...

best with it!

[belairstudio]

Guys, thanks for the advice.


I'm looking for a good brit piano. (coldplay, elton etc)

Full clip, I tried to mic with 2 figure 8 condesers, and even omni's.
It's a more open and natural sound, but I find it a bit too "far".

I think the best way so far to obtain that kind of british pop piano is opening up the thing and close mic it with cardios.

I'd like to try to mic the back board, but the piano is close to a wall......maybe that is part of the dull sound problem?? Since now I'm still in need of a lot of eq to bring up top/bottom and pull out 300hz (nice mids though)

[mitgong]

The best sound I can get out of mine comes from THE BACK of the instrument (it's a soundboard, after all) about 3 feet out, stereo pair about 6 inches apart.

Perfect every time.

[PlugHead]

Originally Posted by mitgong

The best sound I can get out of mine comes from THE BACK of the instrument (it's a soundboard, after all) about 3 feet out, stereo pair about 6 inches apart.

Perfect every time.

same IME 'almost' everytime...

BTW - move that piano away from the wall - no wonder it sounds like ass! Go at least a couple of feet from it being backed up against anything - uprights usually sound very unflattering against a wall... tutt

[belairstudio]

[QUOTE=PlugHead
uprights usually sound very unflattering against a wall... [/QUOTE]


I supposed that, I'll try moving it so that I can try micing the board......

Tell you what comes up

[7rojo7]

Where the strings cross under the keyboard, take that panel off and put an omni there, then put a ribbon above the second seperation pointed towards the high keys. It's not stereo but it gets the whole range of the piano in your face and easily mixable in mono. If I were doing solo piano I would put up both the close set and a stereo image but from the side of the piano from the bass side, L=soundboard, R=keys, if you have a nice room it should sound pretty good. I also use 3x M260s a little bit like the picture, or a PhantomV in omni over the bass and 2 JV 74s in the middle and up top. Try to point your mics at the same angles.

[belairstudio]

7rojo7 from Spoleto.....Rome speaking here.

Quite a few interesting suggestions, I'll try some of them but it's not piano solo, it's pop piano.

I tried to move the piano from the wall and mike the sound board.
Waaaaaaaaayyyyy better. open, natural.

I'll try some differnt settings, with more mics to get the hammering sound and the air together.


7rojo7, what's your name?

Alberto Lombardi

[Bob Olhsson]

Uprights vary a great deal so I always need to experiment a lot unless I have recorded the exact same make and model before.

[7rojo7]

ciao Alberto,
my name is Robert Johnson, everyone calls me rojo (rogio or olorogio or urumita, diminuitivo)
I'm struggling with a small studio about an hour and a half north of Roma. I can also do remote work and freelance engineering (recording, FOH, monitors)
I should have my site up in a few weeks.
I have lots of nice mics and a pretty cool but small space.
I find that the mic at the string crossing and the mic on the high strings on the hammers gives me the driest sound, thus easily controllable. The real piano has nicer action and more fluid dynamics than a sampled piano, watch out for pedal bangers. I had this accompianist in here that though she was playing the gran cassa. Don't let anyone tell you that you have a noisy piano if it's not true, it's all in the ankle.