Mic'ing upright piano

[SOWM]

Anyone care to share tips on mic'ing an upright grand piano? I'm especially interested in the best placement of the mic(s). The piano will be the only instrument on these tunes, so I need to get as big a sound as I can. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

 

[John Sayers]

One way

Firstly pull it apart I mean take off the front panel to expose the hammers etc. Now mike where the hammers contact the strings from around 6" away with the mikes around 6" - 1' apart. Use quality mikes.

cheers
John

 

[Tonewoods]

Mine's got a lid on top, that I raise. Put two mics 2' apart or so, preferably condensers. I've used U87's, KM84's, AKG Bluelines, but my favorites were (and are) a pair of Mictrotech Gefell UM70's in cardiod.
Then put your best ribbon mic (I use a BK11, but recently tried a Stephen Sank modified B&O with a 44BX ribbon in it with fabulous results) in the "sweet spot" in the back of the piano, wherever that might be. On my piano, it's in between the 2nd and 3rd large ribs on the treble side.
Check for phase before pushing "record", and blend to taste.
I've used nothing but the BK11 on lots of mixes, but they were not mixes that had predominantly piano, like you're trying to do...
Luck!

PS...what mics do you have?

 

[flatrockrecordin]

I've had good luck with the front off like John said with 2 dynamics, one in front of the bass strings and one in front of the treble strings. You need to listen close for clicks, rattles, and pedal squeaks and try to eliminate them. I have also used a stick-on acoustic guitar pickup stuck on the back right on the sound board. This works well when other instruments are in the room because there is no leakage. The sound is very bright so you'll probably need to roll off the highs a tad.