Recording a piano

B

Bloomington

New member
I will be recording a piano next week. It will be Christmas/religious music done on a 7' grand piano. The piano is at a church with brick walls and a concrete floor so the space is quite lively.

I have two C-1000S mics, a 4033 and some 57's/58's to use.
I will be recording on a Roland 880 DAW and probably using a mackie 1604 mostly for the fact it has better pre's and easier to adjust EQ.

Any hints on which mic's to use, placement and eq'ing if any?

The goal of this recording will be for live accompianent (SP) for 3 vocalists and for the piano track for a finished CD.

Does it pay to place a couple of mics under the lid with blankets and another outside to capture some of the room ambience and then mix them down to achieve the desired sound for the type of music I am recording?

Anyway - any ideas any folks have are greatly appreciated. :)
 
Each piano is different

You might try this.

Put the C1000 on booms. Stick one half way in and aim it at the center of the bass strings, Take the other C1000 stick it in a little bit, aim it at the center of the treble section. Put the 4033 on a stand at the curve of the piano aimed generally into the piano, but 3 to 5' away. Mixing these 3 sources together should get you a descent representation of the piano. Since you are working to capture the sound for accompaniment you really don't need to worry about capturing the sound of the room.
 
I've used a pair of C1000S's on grand piano before and it was... pretty ugly.
I don't like those mics for grand at all.

Those are the only SD condenser mics you have access to?

Sloop's set up would be a good place to start. Watch out for phase problems; be sure to utilize the 3:1 rule.

I could be a little more specific though and say:
Place one mic around C5-A6, close to the action, but pointed away from the hammers at around 9" above the strings.

Place the other mic around A3 about 3 1/2 feet back from the pin bar about 9" - 12" above the strings. Angle it ever so slightly forward.

This placement should give you a nice W I D E stereo pattern, and the distance should eliminate any phase problems.

Setting another, LD condensor at the crook of the grand isn't a bad idea, keep it out away from the piano as sloop suggested.
This mike will be primarily for ambience, so mix it in appropriately.

I have some recordings here:
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1656&alid=-1
Using various mics and pres on a 7'-2" Boston Grand piano, that you might want to check out.
The song names are pretty self explainatory.
 
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