Recording and positioning Upright piano

[BrendanWard]

I will be posting a bunch of threads soon as I am turning my old bedroom into a studio plus 2 mattresses stacked on top of eachother for sleeping intents
I am considering moving my upright piano into the room if i can fit it through the door but before i struggle through that i would like to know If i should not have the piano against the wall or which way i want it to be facing and the best way to Mic my piano any bit of information could help thanks for the time


-brendan

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

You can put the piano up against the wall, but leave yourself enough room to be able to swing one side of it out a good 15-20 degrees when it comes time to record. The idea is to not have the piano parallel with the wall in order to avoid standing waves from building up between the piano soundboard and the wall. This may or may not be necessary, only you ears can tell you for sure, but the option to do so is a good thing to plan for.

G.

 

[BrendanWard]

thank you that is very useful information should i shy away from the corner ? and do you suggest putting any kind of sound foam behind the piano or anywhere else specificlly in relation to the piano?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

thank you that is very useful information should i shy away from the corner ?

Probably...though that can be fairly impossible to predict; so much depends upon the piano's original sound, the exact character of the room, and your own personal needs and sound preferences. Sticking it in a corner can potentially boost the bass sound, especially if the corner is on the left side of the piano where the bass strings are located. Whether that will sound worse or better for you depends upon your piano and your ears (and the rest of your room, too, FTM.)

and do you suggest putting any kind of sound foam behind the piano or anywhere else specificlly in relation to the piano?

I don't know that I'd suggest anything specific for the piano unless you wanted to talk about isolation from other instruments. The general rules for live room and mix control room design would still apply, and can be found all over the internet (for mix room layout and treatment basics, check here.)

G.

 

[nate_dennis]

heres a really good article (complete with tons of sound clips) from sound on sound about recording the upright piano. I don't have much experience with it, but the article is pretty inclusive. Hope it helps.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr09/articles/uprightpianos.htm