I have a 6x6 sound limiting room. Two shurektm141 condenser microphones and a AKG 220. (Budget). I’m recording a console up rite. I’ve done minimal research I’ve tried the xy method on top with the two shures and the AKG underneath (all panels removed). It sounds like the piano is hiding when I play back. Settings are cardioid on the shures. Usung 1-3 rule. Piano is pulled 1 foot away from sound curtain. Any ideas on what I could do to maximize quality given my budget and space????
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Newbie needs help recording piano
- Thread starter GNate_108
- Start date
rob aylestone
Moderator
6x6 I presume metres? Uprights always sound like poor relations when you record them unless you spend some time finding where the best sound can be captured from. Grands are easy by comparison. Removing the panels opens the sound up but also reveals loads of mechanical sounds you don't want.
Frankly, the 1:3 rule will probably fail here. What sort of sound do you want? Close miked, full of detail, or the sound of the piano in a room. If the latter, then the room itself is important as it will help or hinder. Before you start putting any mics out, get somebody to play it and have a walk around. Do not discount any listening position, no matter how crazy for the moment - so 360 degrees around it and then 180 over the top. Plenty of locations will sound poor. It helps to do this with a finger blocking one of your ear canals. What you hear is what you can capture. If you find a place that sounds good - put up one mic in this position with it connected so you can monitor on headphones, then move it carefully around to see what you get. When it sounds nicest. Leave it and use the other mic and do the same thing. What you're after this time is the weakest part of the capture the first mic got. Maybe it sounded great from C4 down, but is a bit dull? So move the second mic to see if you can capture the missing top end. If you find a new good place where the worst area is now good, experiment with balancing the two to make them all sound good, pans in the centre - a mono recording with no width. Then you can pull the two apart very gradually bringing in a little 'space'. It's not an accepted proper technique, but can often salvage uprights, which defy any logical plan. I've done one when just opening the top and aiming down two 451 AKGs worked brilliantly, and another where nothing worked at all. The instrument was to all intents and purposes unrecordable, yet at the other side of the room sounded nice - bar the horrible reverb the room had. Recording from that side just produced a real mess. Uprights also have the habit of being very mechanically noisy - I always find reliving the front makes this worse, not better!
Frankly, the 1:3 rule will probably fail here. What sort of sound do you want? Close miked, full of detail, or the sound of the piano in a room. If the latter, then the room itself is important as it will help or hinder. Before you start putting any mics out, get somebody to play it and have a walk around. Do not discount any listening position, no matter how crazy for the moment - so 360 degrees around it and then 180 over the top. Plenty of locations will sound poor. It helps to do this with a finger blocking one of your ear canals. What you hear is what you can capture. If you find a place that sounds good - put up one mic in this position with it connected so you can monitor on headphones, then move it carefully around to see what you get. When it sounds nicest. Leave it and use the other mic and do the same thing. What you're after this time is the weakest part of the capture the first mic got. Maybe it sounded great from C4 down, but is a bit dull? So move the second mic to see if you can capture the missing top end. If you find a new good place where the worst area is now good, experiment with balancing the two to make them all sound good, pans in the centre - a mono recording with no width. Then you can pull the two apart very gradually bringing in a little 'space'. It's not an accepted proper technique, but can often salvage uprights, which defy any logical plan. I've done one when just opening the top and aiming down two 451 AKGs worked brilliantly, and another where nothing worked at all. The instrument was to all intents and purposes unrecordable, yet at the other side of the room sounded nice - bar the horrible reverb the room had. Recording from that side just produced a real mess. Uprights also have the habit of being very mechanically noisy - I always find reliving the front makes this worse, not better!