How to disguise a digital piano's sound

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cjacek

cjacek

Analogue Enthusiast
Hi,

What would you recommend as far as disguising a digital piano's "perfect" sound to make it more natural in its tone? Any EQ, reverb advice perhaps?

While I usually record with an acoustic upright, I don't have access to it right now and making due with a rather nice Casio AP-45 but I need to make it sound more "authentic".

Obviously, that the digital piano is usually sampled too close to its respective key, that it lacks the soundboard and more natural interaction between each of the keys and reverb etc... accounts for its rather "sterile" tone and that's what I wish to at least "mask", if I can't make up for its shortcomings.

Do you have any advice on how to do this? My setup is basically a tape machine, mixer, digital reverb box, mics and the space that I record in, which is basically a small room. The sound that I really wanna go for is the 50's and 60's tone.

What would you do if someone presented you with a good basic digital piano and told you to re-create the piano tone of an acoustic from a 60's recording, basically to accompany a vocal, which means the piano is in the background, which can perhaps be more easily disguised.

Thanks for reading this far and I'd appreciate any advice, within the context of the limitations of my own gear and recording space, working with what I already have on hand.

Thanks! :)
 
I don't know if this would work, but..... Play it through an amp. Mic the amp and the room and mix it with the DI track.
 
just a suggestion to add to chili

mic the keys so you can mix in the natural key sound themselves.. probably next to nothing, but ive had some good sounds.

definately some reverb helps, if you want 50s or 60s sound, i would try a small empty room reverb. maybe 20%ish or whatever you like.

tricky business making fake things sound real.
 
Use PSP PianoVerb. Make the piano as dry as possible and add that. It helps a ton. Then if you want to add room verb or mic it, go ahead.
 
Thanks a TON guys. I really appreciate the advice and I'm gonna try all of the above and, I must say, especially the PianoVerb! Never knew that something like this existed and I did search for such "simulators" in the past with no result. I am currently downloading it and will experiment. Thanks again!:)
 
I'm wondering . . . .if one were to amp it and record the amp . . . would it help to record the left hand and right hands seperately in order to produce a stereo image? Just a thought . . . I've never tried it so I don't know.
 
nate_dennis said:
I'm wondering . . . .if one were to amp it and record the amp . . . would it help to record the left hand and right hands seperately in order to produce a stereo image? Just a thought . . . I've never tried it so I don't know.
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I'd think that'd depend upon the piano piece and the quality of the player; the issue there would be how smooth and natural the sync between hands would be when playing the two hands sequentially.

Better yet, I would think, would be - if there is a stereo out on the keys - to send L and R to separate amps and mike them separately.

That said though, here is how I usually disguise my digital pianos:


G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Better yet, I would think, would be - if there is a stereo out on the keys - to send L and R to separate amps and mike them separately.
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GRRRR I logged on just to post that same idea!!! I had it just a few minutes after I posted. One could even position each amp near each other so that the mics picked up a bit of the other (much as they both would in an acoustice piano) and that may go a long way to provide the illusion you are looking for. (My computer wont show the image you posted so I can't comment on it.)
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
That said though, here is how I usually disguise my digital pianos:
Click to expand...

HA! Good one man!:D

Going by the above advice, I actually played around with mic positioning and, to my surprise, it was just enough to put a mic near and around the piano, with no outboard amp / speaker, to get a decent and more natural sound. It does help if your mic adds color and is not too "transparent" to further the disguise effect.;) Room is critical too of course. All in all I'm pretty happy with the result and thanks again to all for the suggestions.:)
 
So you ended up using the keyboards onboard speakers? Interesting. Well, I'm glad you got it worked out.
 
nate_dennis said:
So you ended up using the keyboards onboard speakers? Interesting. Well, I'm glad you got it worked out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the speakers on that piano are pretty loud and they're underneath the keyboard / case, projecting downward and then out. I found that the best sound is kinda where the player sits [head level] but maybe somewhat to the left or right. That's where it sounds smooth and balanced. Now, I'm not really a fan of digital pianos, for my kind of material, but I've really grown to like the AP45. The way it is built, feels and sounds, strikes me like a balance between a normal keyboard and an actual good sounding acoustic upright. It's pretty useless when recorded direct from the headphone or line outs [too sterile and in your face] but does begin to sound convincing when mic'd slightly away from the piano. The funny thing is that I actually bought it after listening to this example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gpsu-kOEGk

Granted, the guy is probably using a shitty mic but still, I personally thought it sounds very convincing but, again, only if mic'd and EQ'd a bit.
 
try a little "tape saturation" or distorition around maybe 4%?
something light

try a "room sound" but not "reverb"
 
o and a simple thing, stereo image.

bass on one side, treble on the other. keep this consistant with drummers perspective.

so if the drums are from drummers perspective, mix the keys from keyboard players perspective.
 
And, since stereo recording is suggested, don't pan the L and R channels all the way out to the sides or you'll get the "20ft-wide piano" effect.
Not only will it sound strange with other instruments, but you will eat up a lot of your mixing room for other tracks.

C.
 
I don't seem to get that. I panned piano hard left and right for my current album and the stereo image isn't that wide.

Its all a matter of how you recorded in the first place.
 
Thanks again for the suggestions. I tend to record in mono but good advice anyway. :)
 
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