How to make piano recording at home sounds like studio recording?

Pianist Nina

New member
I have Steinway upright piano. How to make a recording at home sounds as studio recording using air iPad ?
Usually I am using Music Memos program for my work, but there are many additional sounds.
Is there any other similar programs which makes sounds automatically be like studio recorded?
If not, which program I can use to improve the sound?
 
The problem is not the recording program. The issue will be that an Ipad's internal microphone, while remarkably good for what it is, will never give a studio grade recording. You would have more success using an IOS compatible interface, something like a Presonus Itwo, Tascam IXR or RME Babyface where you can use real microphones properly placed. Once that data had gone through the interface, it's in digital form, and any competent program will be able to store it.
 
And once you've done that ^^^, you have to hope that the room in which you are recording the piano is acoustically sympathetic to being recorded, i.e. it doesn't sound too boxy, dead, or otherwise unpleasant.
 
Plus uprights are more difficult to record realistically as you can never get microphones to the best places, and often the action squeaks and clanks. You see people try to remove the front to get the mics in and then discover that with the front off the timbre is quite weedy and thin, but with the front on, you can't find the right place.
 
Plus uprights are more difficult to record realistically as you can never get microphones to the best places, and often the action squeaks and clanks. You see people try to remove the front to get the mics in and then discover that with the front off the timbre is quite weedy and thin, but with the front on, you can't find the right place.

I went through all that with my small console upright...though it never had any action issues.
It was interesting that that best sound I ever recorded from that piano was with a stereo pair of mics on the floor about a foot high, with the front panel open...each mic on either side of me and the bench...and then a third center mic was up above, with the entire front and lid removed open.
That set-up gave me the closest to a grand piano sound I ever managed with that small upright. Prior to that, I always use to just record from the top...sometimes one mic. sometimes two...and I still do that when I want a more tighter rhythmic/backing piano part...but when I need a more "big" piano sound, that other method worked well.

Now I have a grand piano also...and it's a whole different animal! :)
 
I like to pull the piano about 12-18" from the wall and tape a couple of PZM mics to the wall, about 3' high and 3' apart.
 
Not thought of that BSG, sounds interesting? Miroslav, I meant the noise it makes when you pull the front off. The extra bits to mimic gravity on a grand's hammers tends to be quite clumpy and noisy.
 
Not thought of that BSG, sounds interesting?

It's a variation on a method used in studios, with a pair of LDCs placed like that but without the wall. In smaller rooms it's harder to avoid walls so a PZM or similar on the wall itself sort of makes it disappear, other than sound bouncing back and forth between the wall and the piano. Now that I think about it, the wall had some deep wedge foam and I actually hung the mics, so the reverberation would have been cut down a lot.
 
I was presented with a concert pianist once - specialised in playing German Schubert stuff with karate chop hands. It was a big venue with pretty theatre style dead acoustics rather than a concert hall. It was sponsored by Yamaha who provided a pretty standard C3, and specified a PA to give it a lift and a little artificial reverb - another Yamaha product. They also specified an AKG 451. I started to pull out a stand, but the pianist stopped me. He asked me for the mic and some insulation tape. I gave it him. He laid on the floor with the mic and passed it up and over the central strut so it dangled down. He then folded it back on itself so it pointed up, and then taped the mic and cables together. I looked, I think, mystified - and he just said try it. Piano onstage, mic attached, lid down. I went to the sound desk and discovered a really nice tone with no EQ at all.

I asked him and he said he'd been shown the tip by somebody from Yamaha in Germany - but it only works on C3s. I've used it twice since, and tried it on other pianos with the expected terrible result, but on C3s it's really worth a try if you ever get stuck.
 
Nina, remember that your question could be reversed. If I buy a Steinway, will I be able to play it?

You need to weigh up a few things. Equipment can either all work for you or against. You could buy a small battery operated zoom recorder with built in mics and produce excellent recordings, or you can buy two mics, and interface, some software, and a pair of quality speakers and headphones and produce terrible ones. Buying recording kit guarantees nothing. The skill is your ears, your understanding of the physics, and your ability with software. What would you tell the keen wannabe pianist who has got the piano, a comfy stool, and a pile of music?
 
Because the software just stores what the mics capture, but, and it's a big but, it's a long chain. So modest mics, modest interface and an app on an iPad does enable high quality recording. The real trouble is that computers offer huge storage space, high processing power and access to duff the software. Audacity and reaper are great products, but there are far more than those, and while price has much to do with it, they just work differently and do more things. Audacity is free and most people will have it on their systems. I have it, but never use it, because I just don't like it. There is nothing wrong with it at all, it just doesn't do it for me. If you are a decent pianist, you chose your piano carefully. Would you have even happy buying the only one the local music store had? Why not download the trials for the paid for software and get audacity, then try editing an MP3 of some music you know well, and see how you get on. I'm old and have a paid for Sibelius subscription as my pianist colleague uses it. I absolutely hate the way it works, he loves it. I struggle, he's amazingly quick. Tha the trouble with software.its personal.
 
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