recording steinway grand in a small recital hall...

[greengyozaman]

Hi all,

New here, and wondering if you can help.

I'm doing a piano recital next month and wondering what's the best way to record a grand piano in a small recital room (120+ capacity).

Piano: Steinway Model-D grand, 9-ft
Venue: Small recital room (120+ capacity), high ceiling with a dome roof in the middle part of the long diagonal room, with good acoustic (sound will travel far)
Piano position: one end of the room, lid fully-open facinig other side of the room
Music: classical (Debussy, Arvo Part, Mussorgsky, new music by Andrew Campling)

Equipments I have so far:

1) Recorder: Zoom R24, Zoom H4n
2) Mics: 2 x Shure PG81, 2 x AKG Perception 420, 2 x AKG C214 matched pair

Equipments I'm thinking about getting:

1) Mics: 2 x Rode NT2-A, 2 x Rode NT55, or 2 x Audio Technica AT2050
2) Preamp: Presonus Digimax D8 or Focusrite Octopre MkII

Or should I go for 2 x AKG C414 XLS, or other mics and not bother with the preamp?

Should I use more or less mics?

I would like a transparent, clean, sound without too much hammer action noice but need to capture the weight of the Steinway grand sound in full without loss of lower-frequency signal...

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[komposer]

Ideally you would be hanging two matched highly transparent mics from the ceiling (or very tall stand) about 8-10 feet from the instrument (depending on the room) in front of and pointing down at the piano. 45-65 degree spread. That's how I used to do it.

 

[greengyozaman]

Mics can be easily placed 8-10 feet from the grand piano and angled towards the fully-open lid.

I guess my matched C214 pair can be used for this arrangement - how far apart between the mics should be? 8-10 feet apart also?

I also read somewhere that Omnis are often preferred for classical recording - so should I use the Perception 420 pair instead, or use both pairs but reinforce the C214 as per your suggestions with my Perception 420s to capture the atmosphere also?

 

[komposer]

Good thread on the topic

From this thread.

 

[greengyozaman]

Wow - very high set-up. I need a height extension to my mic stand as well as extra-long XLR cables. I see a pair of SDC mics shown in this photo - so this suggests that it might be better for me to look at using getting a pair of NT55s using the omni caps (as suggestions elsewhere seem to suggest) instead of mounting a pair of C214s or the AKG 420s (the latter being much heavier)...

And I guess as a result of using a longer set of cables, you'd suggest that a preamp will be useful for this set-up, no?

 

[greengyozaman]

Hmm - just returned from a music store nearby, only to be told that I would be better off using a pair of SE4400a PLUS either spend as much as you can on the preamps or get an audio interface i.e. Roland Octa Capture.... I tried to ask questions regarding AKG C414, or any other multi-pattern Rode mics - but he kept steering me towards "a decent Chinese handmade" SE4400a pair @ £1,000...

Any opinions on this? I still prefer to keep a neutral but true sound of the grand and Rode mics seem to answer a lot my questions if no-one tells me to use my C214s and Perception 420s...

One thing is for sure - that preamp will be a good investment. So I'm thinking about getting Focusrite Octopre MkII... Any other suggestions from similar price range to the Octopre?