Pedal noise from piano

[Freeform]

Are there any piano players out there? I always get amazing sounds when I record piano (grands, uprights and consoles), but does anyone have any suggestions about reducing the pedal noise caused when pressing and releasing the sustain pedal?

 

[groucho]

Hey man, consider yourself *lucky* that you get pedal sounds! Those of us working with digital pianos (me) only *dream* of worrying about pedal sounds.

Seriously, I think it adds a realistic sound to a recording. Unless it's huge and boomy and gigantic I wouldn't worry about it. Just my opinion.

Chris

 

[Jeyan]

I have the same issue everytime while recording uprights I get the pedal sounds, esp at the end of the song when players try to sustain the ending and releasing, just change the mic position, thats all we can do. When your tuner opens the piano, ask him to lubricate the pedal parts. Helped much for me.

 

[knightfly]

Wear soft-soled shoes, check the condition of the felt that dampens the end-of-travel on the pedals, and replace it with newer, maybe slightly thicker felt if it's worn. Just generally, check all the components that the pedal is connected to for looseness, wear, bumping against front panel, etc -

Mic the piano from the top if it's an upright - take off the front panel so the piano sound is louder relative to pedal noise.

Or, you could trade pianos with Groucho, I hear he's in the market for some "damper noise" .. :=)

 

[cstockdale]

and anything to do with micing: make sure you have read Harvey Gerst's bible in the mic forum, it is a long read, but you will learn an immense amount about micing, and there is a section in there specifically on piano micing. Somewhere around page 11 or so in the thread is a link someone put up to an "abridged" version of the thread: a Word document that you can download. Read it, read it, read it again, and experiment. I recall him talking specifically about pedal noise and such in there.

 

[Han]

I have a grand in my studio. When I play it, you won't hear any pedal sound.

Some players make little noise, some make a ton of pedal noise, it's actually damper noise. When you release the sustain pedal too sudden, the dampers land on the strings with a "bonk".

You can tweak the piano so that the dampers don't get very high above the strings.

A friend of mine, who's a fine mechanic engineer, made a small hydrolic shock absorber for me. Like cars have, but very small.

I have put it between the damper bar and the piano frame. Now the noise is gone.

 

[sjoko2]

A good piano tech will fix that problem

 

[John Fitzgerald]

Have the piano player practice his/her pedal technique. This usually helps.

 

[Michael Jones]

Yeah, I have a large grand that I record. I don't like pedal noise either. The noise comes from the felt, not so much from the pedal linkage. Microphone placement and pedal technique are the only things I have found that can minimize the problem.