Piano Recording - Single Instrument (VST or internal Korg Kronos sounds)

Holger Morlok

New member
This may be a stupid question but I couldn't really find an answer related to that yet:

When I do want to record a single Piano: Does it need to be MIXED and MASTERED or only MASTERED?

Or am I mistaken and I am lacking something completely and this is a question that makes no sense because it depends?

For example, in this song, the sound consists of 4 pianos (but I still consider this as a single instrument because they're used like that):

Đừng hỏi em (vi sao) | MỸ TAM(piano cover) by Limitless Enlightenment | Free Listening on SoundCloud

(One of Korg Kronos of the original presets + one preset that I've added on my own + 2 VSTs and I've just tuned the levels in volume and pitch until they appeared like one - would this be called layering in that case I guess?)

How would you judge that sound? Is it quite dead, dull, uninspiring or do you even like it?
Because many people seem to.

But I'd love to improve this for the next recordings.
 
It's not dull at all. Some of it is quite cutting. It IS multiple instruments, but all playing in a very fixed space. The space is what makes it mushy, it's a very dense reverb that sucks the energy and makes it sound dark and murky. The piano sound you chose is quite artificial in nature, probably intentionally, but the right hand of the tune is often playing similar pitches to notes in the arpegiated left hand and they clash because they appear to be sitting on top of each other. Did you try making the key line central, then adding width to the accompaniment so it clears the central section? I could also tonally change each track to the listener to tell that there are multiple pianos? I suppose the choice is pretending to be one instrument, but never having more than 10 digits, or having 11 played on two distinct pianos? Or of course 3 or 4. The reverb adds texture but makes it a bit messy, so some experimentation needed. The other thing I found a little odd is that sometimes we would hear quietly played notes very loud but then loudly played notes with hammer attack very quiet, which is a little unusual.
 
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