Micing a piano

[JD01]

Anyone every mic'd an upright piano?
Mic choice? Dynamics, condensers? etc.
Mic placement?
Where to start - I'm not even that sure of the layout inside a piano!

[vomitHatSteve]

Yep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oT3MdL-p_Q

I opened the top and an SDC on either end pointed vaguely towards the center. Then shuffled them around a few times.

The key things I gathered in my research were:
Remove any panels you can to get microphones into the piano.
Condensers - proximity (or lack thereof) is gonna make life real difficult with dynamics.
The pedals are surprisingly loud. Check for those.
Hire a real pianist if you're bad at it like I am.

[JD01]

Cheers, Steve.

[JD01]

Yep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oT3MdL-p_Q

I opened the top and an SDC on either end pointed vaguely towards the center. Then shuffled them around a few times.

The key things I gathered in my research were:
Remove any panels you can to get microphones into the piano.
Condensers - proximity (or lack thereof) is gonna make life real difficult with dynamics.
The pedals are surprisingly loud. Check for those.
Hire a real pianist if you're bad at it like I am.

I found this too
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ight-piano
Basically - I have access to a Piano, a pianist and a reason to record one. Figured it would be interesting.

[Greg_L]

I've miked a piano a few times. I spent no time giving it much thought beyond just putting two mics up over the top of it. I treated it like drum overheads. Came out fine to me.

[Lt. Bob]

as a piano tech, the soundboard is essentially like the top of an acoustic.
I think you could mic the back of the piano getting all the sound from the soundboard and you'd pick up less action and pedal noise

[WhiskeyJack]

I've never done it. only just DI from a keyboard HaHa!! Should be a fun challenge though i suspect.

[JD01]

I've miked a piano a few times. I spent no time giving it much thought beyond just putting two mics up over the top of it. I treated it like drum overheads. Came out fine to me.

Yeah, that's where I was gonna start. I was gonna open the lid, stick a pair of C1000S about 30cm above the top about 15cm I'm from the edges and work from there.

[Lt. Bob]

once again ...... most of the sound of a upright comes out of the back which is why i always told customers to not put the piano up against the wall ...... leave at least 3 or 4 inches ....... you have to try it of course but I would not be inclined to open the lid since that let mechanical noises out.
On grands you often see mics being put underneath the piano to catch the soundboard best ..... and that's essentially the back of a vertical

[Armistice]

What Lt, Greg and VHS say. I believe to do it "properly", you'd treat it similarly to overheads - using a matched pair, ideally, of SDCs - just a matter of working out the positioning. I'm sure the google can tell you more.

[vomitHatSteve]

What Lt, Greg and VHS say. I believe to do it "properly", you'd treat it similarly to overheads - using a matched pair, ideally, of SDCs - just a matter of working out the positioning. I'm sure the google can tell you more.

Well, except Bob disagrees with me and Gerg!

JD, I'm pretty sure I worked from the same SOS page you found.

I'm not gonna second-guess Bob's expertise. I certainly have no idea what I'm doing.
That said, my piano is against the wall!

[Armistice]

What Lt, Greg and VHS say. I believe to do it "properly", you'd treat it similarly to overheads - using a matched pair, ideally, of SDCs - just a matter of working out the positioning. I'm sure the google can tell you more.

Well, except Bob disagrees with me and Gerg!

JD, I'm pretty sure I worked from the same SOS page you found.

I'm not gonna second-guess Bob's expertise. I certainly have no idea what I'm doing.
That said, my piano is against the wall!

I was assuming JD could successfully integrate the various suggestions and come up with the right answer.

[JD01]

The piano I will be a attempting to mic is also against the wall in the corner of a room.

[vomitHatSteve]

Sorry, Bob. Sometimes the practicalities of positioning a piece of furniture have to trump how it sounds!

[Greg_L]

I suspend my piano from the ceiling so the sound radiates into all dimensions of time and space.

It's tough to play it up there though.

[Tadpui]

I suspend my piano from the ceiling so the sound radiates into all dimensions of time and space.

It's tough to play it up there though.

I tried to post a GIF of Lionel Richie dancing on the ceiling, but it didn't work. The gag just doesn't land when typed out in text...

[Lt. Bob]

lol .... no apologies needed ...... lots of people open the lid to mic and if you add the fact that of the things in the world I care about, this isn't one of them, I'm good!



I look forward to hearing how it goes.

[SweetDan]

Is the piano the focus of the recording? If it's just "filler", you might be able to get away with a single mic, positioned back and over the player's shoulder a bit and pointed towards where the music rests.

http://eastofcleveland.com/m/photograph3.mp3 (from a really early period in my recording attempts, done with a USB mic!)

Also note that if you're going to try a "stereo pair" like drum overheads, you'll also have phasing issues between the left/right mics, so position the mics with the 3:1 rule in mind, and all that. (I was at a place with grand piano once and thought it would be neat to record my daughter playing something on the piano, I wasn't careful with how close I had the mics to each other, and the end result wasn't great.)

[vomitHatSteve]

Sorry, Bob. Sometimes the practicalities of positioning a piece of furniture have to trump how it sounds!

See... now I'm thinking about Feng Shui... Where would a dragon want its piano?

[WhiskeyJack]

MIDI KEyboard > Interface > Daw = done.