Recording a piano

[singlespeak]

Hi all.
Suppose you have a poppy piano piece with left & right hand, and you want to turn it into a full blown song (e.g. drums, bass, piano, organ, guitar, vocals), keeping the original piano piece as is. Would you record the left and right hand separately, or just record the whole piece in one go?
The difference between the low notes and the high notes can be quite striking and it seems to me they would have different eq-ing needs. Does anyone have any preference or experience one way or another?
Thanks.

 

[miroslav]

I've done it both ways....

Recorded each hand individually (mind you, I'm talking about typical Pop/Rock piano, not classic stuff… ).

Recorded with a pair of mics, one aimed at the lower half and the other for right hand, upper half. Yes, there is bleed between the mics, but it gives it a nice natural sound, and it also fills the center of the soundfield between them very nicely.

Sometimes you want a big L < --- > R piano sound...but for some things, it doesn't work and/or you really want more control over individual notes/phrases...so there's nothing wrong with recording left/right hand separately...IHMO. Whatever works for your mix.

 

[grimtraveller]

This past thread may yield an interesting take on your question. Personally, I'd record it in one go but I'd stress keeping that left hand from going to the deep notes if you're using a bass guitar in the song, unless it's in parts where either the bass hits high notes or is silent.

 

[singlespeak]

Thanks guys.

@Miroslav
Two mics, I would love to be able to do that. Mine's just an electric piano so impossible to do, but it hadn't even occurred to me. You did both and conclude "whatever works for your mix". That's good to know. Cheers.
See also my response to

@grimtraveler
Thanks for the thread, interesting take indeed. I don't think I agree with avoiding notes - mind you I probably just don't want to
It depends on the style of music you're trying to make I suppose, and the style of playing. I'm sure I've heard things that had both bass and low piano notes in it that sounded great together (Tori Amos' Siren is a good example). The thing about low piano notes is that they have this, uhm, flappy quality to them? The vibration is pretty strong, or some such. I think it's possible to retain that specific quality by reducing the lower frequencies. But I'm not sure if it's just eq-ing. It probably requires a specific microphone that gets the 'pianoness' but not the lower bass? Or am I talking nonsense here? It's happened before.

 

[oretez]

Thanks guys.

I think it's possible to retain that specific quality by reducing the lower frequencies. But I'm not sure if it's just eq-ing. It probably requires a specific microphone that gets the 'pianoness' but not the lower bass? Or am I talking nonsense here? It's happened before.

not talking nonsense merely display a certain lack of experience. Bass (of any variety) and and piano (of any manufacture) will express distinct timbres . . . how they are used is a function of arrangement more then melody and getting the timbres out of the way of each other (and every other) in the mix is more then a matter of EQing. (blaming or crediting 'EQ' is a bit like saying main difference between me and nobel/pultizer prize winning author and me is 'spelling', dislexic so splg is a problem by default but thinking I'd be a candidate for a pultizer if I improved my splng is probably a bit wishful)

what is always going to be true enough to assert as principle is that balancing kick drum, left end of piano, acoustic guitar, and vocals will always be challenging . .. a well written tune, with a decent arrangement, adequate performance, tracked in a decent room will remain more important then any amount of post EQ . . . take a busy, ambling song, with individual voices (performances) paying little attention to other voices or their timing, tracked in an indifferent room and then studio magic becomes the weapon of choice to fix it in the mix . . . but modifying frequency (eq) dynamics (compression) and time ('verb) as well as gain structure (turning it down) all remain necessary considerations

as to whether it is better to track left and right hand separately don't really have a general opinion . . . if you can separate the left and right hand to two separate outputs (something in my experience even most romplers can do) then gut feeling is I'd tend to lean in direction of capturing a unified l/r performance to two separate tracks . . . differential EQ being a lot easier (i.e. quicker, cheaper) to fix then timing issues

but here's a +1 for 'it all depends'

 

[singlespeak]

... a well written tune, with a decent arrangement, adequate performance, tracked in a decent room will remain more important then any amount of post EQ . . .

Well yes, of course you're right. I'm not going to disagree with that lineup.
I have experience in sculpting sounds with synthesizers, where eq and all the other friends you mentioned just become more parameters to tweak your sound with. Just more knobs.
My ways of recording a piano and a bass are extremely limited (gearwise, playwise, you name it). I only have a couple of choices of sound, 2 mics and no room.
All this to say that you make a good point, but it's out of my league. Thanks though.