what type of mic is best for piano

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gingernut

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hey guys. i was wondering what type of mic is best for recording good quality piano sounds?

thanks
Jamie
 
There are so many variables... type and size of piano; size, shape and acoustics of the room; position of piano within the room; style of music & player; etc. etc. SDCs of sufficient quality can do a good job, but so can modern ribbon mics (AEA R84 comes to mind). My current favorite (out of about 60 mics ) is a Brauner Valvet BE LDC tube mic. I'd say go with the best quality pair of condensers (LD or SD) you can get your hands on, and spend a LOT of time finding the right positions for them. You may be surprised where the best sound comes from (I was pretty well flabbergasted the first time I took the lid off my grand and walked around with one ear over the strincase looking for "sweet" spots - try it!).

Scott
 
Scott has a very good point. Listen at the round end of a grand, opposite the keyboard and you will hear a very wide three dimensional sound.

If you put a pair of mics beside the player's head, you will hear the sound like the player is hearing, plus a lot of noise from the nails against the keys, no good place.

There are so many placements possible, depends on what sound you're after, the room etc.

It's not only the mics that's important.
 
Try one or two Crown or Radio Shack PZMs (pressure zone microphones) taped under the lid, or above the piano on the wall. Separate the mics by at least 3 feet for a nice stereo effect.

I recommend the Crown unless you know how to modify the RS PZM to run on 18 volts.

I’ve had excellent results using PZMs this way.

:cool:
 
On this page are samples using pairs of
SM81's
SM57's
&
MXL603's
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1656&alid=-1

Here, you can listen to a pair of TLM103's
http://artists.iuma.com/site-bin/streammp3.m3u?190193

Depends on the sound you're after and the style of the music, and yes, sometimes, even the key the piece is played in.

As a general rule, SD condensors tend to be more... accurate, for lack of a better word, and LD condensors offer a pleasing distortion that some people use words like Rich... Lush... Full to describe.

(All songs were recorded with a 7'-2" Bost Grand, and close miked to help eliminate room discrepencies.)
 
Beck said:
Try one or two Crown or Radio Shack PZMs (pressure zone microphones) taped under the lid, or above the piano on the wall. Separate the mics by at least 3 feet for a nice stereo effect.

I recommend the Crown unless you know how to modify the RS PZM to run on 18 volts.

I’ve had excellent results using PZMs this way.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Radio Shack mics will give you very good results and they are not very critical for placement. Just tape them to the lid and see how it works.

You better tweak them to balanced and solder a 9v battery adaptor to the connections inside the little box and tape a battery to it. It works quite good on 9 volt.

Here's a link: http://www.jdbsound.com/art/art520.html
 
buy yourself a nice XY pattern stereo ribbon mic. lol... make sure to mic the bottom of the piano as well as the top. Thats where all the low and mids are produced. If you get a good stereo micing pattern on top, and a mic sensitive to mids/upper lows on the bottom, it will create a nice full sound. The 3:1 micing technique will give you a wider sound than XY if thats what you're looking for. The trick is finding the "sweet spot" on the piano. Keep in mind the closer to the middle of the piano you go, the louder it is.
 
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