Recording this beloved, majestic instrument has always been a nightmare for yours truly: muffled, imprecise sound and smooth ambience when miking far away from instrument or dry, not so musical, hyper-detailed and blurred sound from mechanical noises when close-up recording… and all pianos, rooms and musicians have their different personalities 😱
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to experiment with smarter close… aehm: not so close-up miking… the mighty Neumann USM69 in 90* angle broad cardioid about is very natural, full bodied and detailed, very promising sounding and worth further experiencing.
A few weeks ago, I placed sane mike inside same piano, just a few cm from strings in 110* angle narrow cardioid pattern and sound was also nice, reminding me Keith Jarrett’s first ECM “Facing You” sound… not very suitable for classical music, either.
I love so much recording!
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1 comment:
hey Stefano, peter sikking here.
I remember from a thread on gearspace (where pros in this field discussed mic-ing a concert piano for classical solo piano recording) that you got to get the lid out of the equation. the lid is for projecting the sound to an audience, but not useful for recording. so what is recording a concert where the lid cannot be fully (270°) opened, or removed?
in that case you can point a spaced, cardioid pair of microphones parallel to the lid. microphones at the ‘nose tip’ of the piano (part of the piano furthest away from the pianist), pointing at the pianist. minimal lid interference.
have fun recording, —ps
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