Piano Mechanical Noise.

C

Cult_Status02

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I just recorded a wonderful sounding Steinway Grand piano. Luckily, it was also with a great player. One problem I never thought of though: How to address mechanical sounds! For one, whenever the pedal is let up it makes a slight thud, that can be brought down with practice, but not right on the spot. And even if one lets the pedal up smoothly, it makes a bit of noise. Also dealing with the pedal are the pads. This piano made a little bit of rubbing noise when the pads were lifted from pressing the pedal.

I needed to close mic the piano as the room sounded pretty bad, so I had the lid up and was micing inside. After trying moving the mics further back I couldn't cover the sound. Ultimately, I ended up shutting the lid and micing as usual. That took care of most of the problem, but it was still a bit noisy.

How do most of you deal with the sounds? Do you have micing techniques that aren't so close and thus don't pick up little noises, or do you just hunt down the noise and try to fix it?
 
Ebrace it or have it serviced. The piano should be pretty quiet. Perhaps move back from the sound board but even the sustanuto (spelling sorry) pedal should be very quiet. Perhaps some of the felts have worn out? I for one am a piano player. Started there and feel my roots there. Piano's have their quirks, you love them or you don't. My personal player (an upright grand) does make a few squeaks and groans when I depress the pedals but otherwise, it's very quiet.

What about mic placement? Where are you putting the mics?
 
Unless it really needs to be serviced, and/or something is loose, then those are just parts of the sound. If you listen to a solo performance of a grand piano, you're going to expect to be hearing some of the noise of the instrument, as you would with any instrument. As long as the player knows how to play, it shouldn't really be a problem.
 
Every grand makes this bump noise if the player releases the sustain pedal too fast, because the dampers literally fall on he strings.

The strings of the upright piano are vertical remember?

I have made a hydrolic damper between the damper bar and frame of the grand, kind of a miniature car shock absorber. Problem solved.
 
I do not listen to much in the way of solo piano music, and when I do, it sounds like it is not close miced, so I never noticed the sounds. I can "visualize" the sounds, but the ones I think of are a bit more tasteful with the piano. But, the ones we had on the piano were just annoying and out of place.

I do see what you guys mean about it being a character of recording piano.
 
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