Mic'ing a Grand Piano

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pinkieandtherev

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OK...I'm sure this is a n00b question, but...

Any tips on mic'ing a piano? I priced some micing solutions, and the church sound budget (which is me...lol) can't afford $400 to mic a piano. Any tips to just get some sound into the system (and have it sound decent)?

thx...
 
I haven't tried them yet (I've got a pair on order coming though), but if you're on the cheap, consider grabbing a pair of Naiants. Open up the lid and put them inside, one on the low end, and one on the high end 6"-12" off the strings. I just mic'ed a piano using a pair of different omni's this way and it sounded great.
 
I've found an easy way if its as part of a band (not solo) is to tape a boundary / PZM mic to the underside of the lid. Most of the sound comes from room mics, but this gives you the extra control if needed.

Other than that, I would experiment with a pair of condensors. Maybe two pairs if you can afford it - one pair over the strings and one pair further out as room mics.
 
two pairs of condensers (unless I K-micro it :) ) is probably more than I can afford to spend right now...not to mention that's 4 channels out of a 24-channel mixer.

The auditorium is not huge...seats probably 150 max. The piano sounds pretty decent in the room, but I'd like to be able to have her in the mix so I can get the praise team on tape, as well as into the drummer's monitor.

The PZM idea is one I hadn't thought of. We used to have a dynamic pointed at the large soundhole over the strings...it worked, but it was ugly as sin having an extra stand and stuff hanging over the piano. I'll have to experiment with the PZM. We usually have the lid closed; we'd raise it up if we have a full band playing. Right now it's just the pianist and the drummer.
 
PZM is a pretty standard method for micing a piano in a church. You can just set the thing behind the music stand and it works pretty well. Or you can tape a lapel mic to the underside of the lid; that's effectively a PZM as well, but it requires less tape!

Use gaff tape of course . . .
 
Try a couplea ribbons on piano

Hi there
Don't know if it was posted here but DrBill over at gearslutz did a shootout with a pair of Oktavamod modded apex 205s here:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/gear...s/150891-ribbon-madness-some-comparisons.html
Whilst he used joly modded ribbons, I am sure you could get a good result unmodded too if you didn't have the money for the mods (think you can get them stock for about $100 from front end audio. Maybe get the mods done later if you have the money!?).
i am currently using a pair of Apex 205s on loadsa things with the free mods done by myself (search on here for details: headbasket/waffle plate mods) but original transformer and they are really good like that, although I am just waiting to get some transformers to do the swap.
Anyhow, the sound on DrBill's recording is amazing. There are clips and also pics of how he positioned the mics. Well worth a look for a different approach. A mic technique I had never seen before.
Hope this helps a bit!
long
 
What type of grand piano?

You may not need a mic at all. I have an event for my church tonight and we don't usually use the piano, we move it to the sanctuary for this event every year. This week is the first time I have looked over the piano (it's a baby grand) and discovered it have an audio output on it. Boy did I feel a little silly. I think two SM57 should do a pretty decent job if you play with mic placement. Just my 2cents.
 
Ive had success with placing a beta 58 on a towel(to avoid vibration) with the lid closed.
You don't get that classical music beauty to the sound, but blended with everything(drums, guitars, bass, choir, orchestra)
it sounded way better than the barcus berry piezo we had in there.
 
I really want to do a better job in the new church, but in the current setup what they do is put a single dynamic microphone poking in the end way up at the top (kind of wedged in there way up at the top).

One question overlooked in micing a piano is how much do they raise the lid? If they raise it high then you have room to position a boom microphone stand wherever you choose and use a large microphone. If they, like my church, usually only open the lid a little or not at all then you don't have a lot of space and need to be looking at attaching something to the bottom of the lid, usually a boundary microphone (aka a PZM).

The second is which part of the piano sound do you want to emphasize, the sound of the wires being struck (hammer sound) or the sound of the wires vibrating afterwards. To pick up more hammer sound you place the mic right over the hammers (duh!).

Contrary to much advicem you do not necessarily need multiple mics to record a piano, but if you don't you will need some significant eq. Obviously the strings directly underneath where the microphone is placed are recorded louder (again duh!). So if you put one microphone over the middle strings of the piano you will need to cut the mids and boost the treble and bass frequencies. With two microphones you put one over the lows, one over the highs, and let them both get some of the mids and between the both are covered. The goal of a 'stereo recording' of a piano isn't go get left and right tracks for the mix but to get high and low tracks which you then pan the same to place the piano in the final mix.

And tha's all I have to say about that.
 
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