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Topic: how to record grand piano and what mic to use  (Read 1717 times)

Offline lance132

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how to record grand piano and what mic to use
on: April 08, 2014, 12:29:11 AM
I want to make some recordings of some pieces. What are some good mics for recording grand pianos for the best price to get the best sound? What are the methods of placing the mic and all that? If any of you have any experience with this let me know your methods and recording equipment.

Offline quantum

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Re: how to record grand piano and what mic to use
Reply #1 on: April 08, 2014, 08:28:29 AM
There's another recent mic thread going on here:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=54948.0


Search around the forum, as there has been a lot of discussion on what people here use.  Also search the Audition room, sometimes people share their recording setup. 
Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach

Offline chrisbutch

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Re: how to record grand piano and what mic to use
Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 08:36:19 AM
When I went into this subject a year or so ago, I discovered that among sound engineers the piano is notorious as one of the most difficult instruments to record, and that there are many different (often contradictory) methods used. You will get some flavour of this by browsing some of the aricles and forum threads in Sound on Sound magazine (which is the sound engineers' trade paper). Also just Googling 'how to record a grand piano' comes up with a lot of interesting articles. The set-up I eventually ended up with is more or less that described by Paul Cantrell https://innig.net/music/recordings/method/

Offline gvans

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Re: how to record grand piano and what mic to use
Reply #3 on: April 09, 2014, 05:42:29 PM
Check out rachfan's work and technical set-up. He milks some fine sounds with his gear. Doesn't hurt that he's an excellent pianist playing interesting and rarely played repertoire, too.

Offline marik1

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Re: how to record grand piano and what mic to use
Reply #4 on: April 09, 2014, 06:53:09 PM
How much you are looking to spend?

The recording quality will depends on many things, but most of all on the instrument itself, the room it is recorded, your skills as a recordist, and only then the quality of the equipment you use.

Best, M
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