Micing Acoustic Piano?

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twonky

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I would love some advice on good micing technique for piano.
I am about to finish a demo for my band and we have access to one of two pianos:

An upright, not one of the great big ones but pretty big (console?)

or

A Yamaha baby grand.

both of them are in pretty big rooms so taking advantage of ambience could be cool, but I still want a good close mic'd sound as well

Some of the mics I am considerin using:

Matched pair of Earthworks TC30Ks
CAD E-200
ADK-somthing (cardioid Lg diaphragm)

I would really like to use the Earthworks- does anyone have any good placement ideas?

Love,
Twonky
 
Because the Earthworks have no proximity effect, they are nice mics for close mic'ing. Also, because they are a little noisy, close mic'ing will improve your signal/noise ratio.

On my piano (6'11") I usually put an Earthworks QTC (similar to yours, but lower self-noise) about 2 octaves down from the top about a foot back from the hammers and about 6" vertically from the harp (aimed towards the strings). The second mic will be approximately where the bass strings criss-cross the middler strings, about 4" off the strings aimed back towards the hammers. Then I balance the pre-amp gains to get approx. equal signals.

I'll usually end up bringing the panning in (to something like ten o'clock/two o'clock) because otherwise the image is un-naturally wide.

While this works really well on my piano, every instrument is different. The best way is just to spend a few hours recording at least a dozen mic positions and comparing. The lid postion (removed, high stick, low stick) will also affect the sound greatly.

Also, just as a point of info, a console is technically a very short upright, not a big one (less than four feet high). A spinet would be even shorter.
 
Little Dog yer a real peach!

Now, would I mic the front of an upright (side facing player) in approximatly the same fashion?

Thanks for the info.
 
twonky said:
Little Dog yer a real peach!

Now, would I mic the front of an upright (side facing player) in approximatly the same fashion?

Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

Open the top and mic the back soundboard and maybe up above the open top with the piano pulled out into the middle of the room.
 
I have a studio-upright, and I've found that opening the top lid all the way AND taking the bottom front plate off BUT keeping the top front plate (above the keys) on gets me the best sound. Then I just use a pair of small-dia. cardioids (MXL 603s) in ORTF configuration about 4 to 5 feet away from the back panel (find Harvey's "big thread" in the mic forum if you're not familiar with stereo miking techniques, cuz you'll have to find the one that works best for you). I find that gets me the best sound for my piano in my room.

Like you I have access to an upgright and a grand (well, a baby grand), but I can't really use the baby grand because I can't control ambient noise where it resides. :( So I end up having to use the upright.
 
I have a 7'2" concert grand, (similar to "littledog's" ) and mic it in a very similar way that he describes. The results are stellar!

The Yamahas are much brighter than the Steinways and as such, may require some judicial use of EQ or slightly different placement, but that gives you a really good starting point. And yes, watch your panning, too much sounds un-natural.

Use the grand if you can. You'll be amazed at how good it can sound!
 
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