how to record grand piano and what mic to use

[lance132]

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.

[quantum]

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. 

[chrisbutch]

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/

[gvans]

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.

[marik1]

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