Excess Piano Noise

[Sir_Matthew]

I may already know the answer to this, but in case I'm wrong:

I've got an old upright piano, probably made around '55, that I've recently acquired for my home studio. It sounds great miked up with a couple of SM57's (all I've got at present, but it sounds surprisingly good), but there's one problem.

Whenever I use the sustain pedal, there's a small squishy squeak that comes from the springs on the pads as they lift off. When I'm playing and listening normally, I don't hear it much, but when I open the lid & mic it, those noises are just loud enough to be irritating on the recording.

I've tried miking it from the back & farther away as well, but I don't get the rich tone that comes from sticking the mics right in there. I'm tempted to spray some WD-40 in there, but I don't want to mess up the wood. My inclination is to hire a piano repairman, but I don't know how much that'll cost.

Is there anyone who's had a similar experience or has any ideas on how to eliminate the problem, either mic-wise or mechanically?

 

[Skyline609]

id say hire the repairman. Not only will he fix this problem, but it will wind up making your piano sound sweet as hell.
it isnt a much as you think. tuning takes hours and i pay 70 bucks for it. this might be a small problem so it might be half that amount!

 

[John Sayers]

yeah hire a pianoperson - you could try pulling it apart by taking off the two front panels (Top and Bottom) which will stop the noise resonating around inside the piano

Cheers

 

[Sir_Matthew]

Well...

I had the piano guy out (only 30 bucks!), & while he got rid of a lot of the noise, there's still more than he could effectively remove. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I was miking it up at the top where all the moving contraptions are. So I had this idea...

I took off the panel underneath the keyboard, just above the foot pedals, & miked the strings down there. While there is a bit of pedal noise, the sound actually has character rather than being friggin' annoying.

I took a few tracks that way, & ended up quite satisfied. It sounds kinda like that piano sound Tom Waits has on much of <i>Mule Variations</i>, and with a bit of reverb works marvelously.

I wouldn't recommend that fix to anyone who wants a sparkling clean piano sound (you'd probably be better off with a piano module for that), but if you like a bit of groan in your recordings, that's a good way to get it.

Thanks for your input. I'm going to start posting a log of my recording experiences at http://sirmatthew.diaryland.com/ if you want the continuing adventures...