Micing an Upright Piano with Only a SM57

[Natty Dread]

I am currently popping my home recording cherry (this is the first thing that I am ever recording). Unfortunately, I am trying to mic an old shitty upright piano with just a Shure SM57, a Behringer Eurorack 802 mixer/preamp and a computer running Apple's Garage Band (I don't know that much about sequencing programs, but I know this is no ProTools). I need to record two piano tracks within the next week and I don't really know how to go about doing it. I read another post on this forum about micing an upright piano in a living room which was somewhat helpful, but most of the suggestions were telling the person which mics to get. I cannot afford (at least for now) to buy any other mics or equipment, and I need to do this somewhat fast, so I need to be able to make due with what I have. So far I have tried recording from the top by opening the lid and placing the mic in the piano and recording facing the piano from the front end. The first way worked better but I keep coming back to the same problem. Whenever I listen to the track with headphones I hear this hissing noise. I tried using dynamic EQ to get rid of it but by reducing the highs the mix sounds somewhat muffled. If I turn the gain and the levels down on the mixer, it is too soft to hear. Is this due to room noise or am I doing something wrong with the mixer, or what? Both of the songs use a lot of sustain pedal and make use of the very low bass end of the piano, with one make a lot of use of the entire piano, and a lot of shifts in dynamics. This recording does not have to sound perfect but it would be nice to be able to capture the tone of a piano (not some cheesy midi keyboard) and do it without having that hiss. If anybody has any insight into this, I would appreciate it very much if they could help me.

 

[mshilarious]

This recording does not have to sound perfect but it would be nice to be able to capture the tone of a piano (not some cheesy midi keyboard) and do it without having that hiss. If anybody has any insight into this, I would appreciate it very much if they could help me.

OK, first off the best approach is to pull the piano away from the wall, and mic the backside of the piano, from about two feet back, a little towards the treble side. You can get a decent sound with a 57 like that, but it won't be all sparkly like you could get with an open grand piano. It's a pretty good rock, blues, or boogie tone--probably a good reggae tone too

Your hiss problem has a few potential sources:

1) Room noise--vents, anything like that?

2) Preamp noise--you're going to have to turn up the gain fairly high with a 57, but if you go too high, you'll get lots more noise. Lower end mixers are typically only good about 3/4 of the way up on the gain.

3) Hiss from the headphone amp--it might be all in your head! OK, not really, but if the mixer's headphone amp is noisy, the recording itself might not be. Or maybe it's your headphones themselves.

Can you hear the hiss on when monitoring the recording (rather than the playback) via headphones straight from the mixer? If not, #1-3 aren't the problem. Instead, it could be:

4) Improper gain staging: either too much preamp gain, followed by attenuation at the faders/software OR

5) Not enough gain, followed by normalization or gain change in Garage Band.

To get the gain staging right, set the channel fader at unity (zero), the master fader at unity, and the faders in Garage Band at unity. Now set the preamp gain such that your peaks are about -6dB in Garage Band. Make sure none of the peaks hit 0dB in Garage Band! It's better to aim a little low.

However if your peaks are -30dB in Garage Band, and you increase gain in Garage Band by 30dB, then your noise is going to be 30dB louder too. So get that level up at the preamp!

If after all that, you still have hiss, I'd start looking at a new soundcard, after testing your cables to make sure nothing weird is going on.

 

[thevirgin]

One other thing

Hi Natty Dread,

What mshilarious said are definately the first things to check IMO, especially the levels and gain staging. mshilarious mentions room noise but I think one thing to be very careful about is the proximity and position of the computer itself and the monitor.

Computers make both audible (fans hard drive...) and electrical noise and they can end up in your recording. It is best to get your computer and monitor as far away as possible from your mic, mixer, cables etc. and also positioned out of the pickup pattern of your microphone. Many of us put the computer in another room (I do) or in a closet and close the door for a few minutes while tracking, opening the door to let things cool down in between takes.

Monitors and video cables can be especially troublesome WRT radiating electrical noise. try to keep them away from all your audio gear and cables.

Hope you are able to solve your problem and get a good piano track.

Peace,
V

 

[Natty Dread]

Hey thanks you guys, I was able to make a pretty decent recording. The problem with the hiss was gain staging.

 

[Richard Monroe]

Man, you guys are fast. You diagnosed the problem and layed down the track before I even got here! Good advice, MShilarious. Get a rep point!-Richie