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Topic: How to record Upright Piano (IDEAS, types of mics)  (Read 1527 times)

Offline alybaracat

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How to record Upright Piano (IDEAS, types of mics)
on: November 21, 2015, 10:08:00 PM
Hi,
I have been recently uploading videos on youtube (covers, original compositions, etc) on a kawai upright piano and I am facing a problem with the audio quality. I am using my Smartphone (Nokia Lumia 1520)

I would really appreciate your help and advice on how to record upright piano?

Current video quality:
 
Piano composer, Graphic Designer and Computer Engineer.
Check my latest original composition
Lost Inside

Offline indianajo

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Re: How to record Upright Piano (IDEAS, types of mics)
Reply #1 on: November 22, 2015, 12:02:42 PM
See this thread: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=60103.0
Cellphones have **** for  microphones.  As a result I don't listen to youtube - 1 billion tracks of ****. 
I'm looking to buy a second decent condensor mike this black Friday. Took me 45 years to find the first one I could afford.   I put the cardioide mike out in the room about waist level pointed at the piano front - there no other instruments in that room to mess up the piano track.  Studios tape an omni mike to the soundboard, but omni mikes are even more expensive than cardioides because you can't get good ones used.  There are a couple of competent omni mikes for sale in my town on craigslist, $1000.  I don't like tape residue on the soundboard of a $3400 piece of fine wood, either. 
Condensor mikes take a phantom power source, ie a pro mixer. 

Offline richard black

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Re: How to record Upright Piano (IDEAS, types of mics)
Reply #2 on: December 24, 2015, 05:29:49 PM
Possibly even more serious than the microphones in phones (which aren't amazing, although if you consider how much else you're getting when you buy a modern phone they aren't bad value) is the fact that the recording software usually employs some degree of dynamics compression and low-bitrate coding, both of which will trash even the output of a studio microphone. Little dedicated recorders (Zoom and similar) can do a very decent jobs for a price in the low hundreds of $.
Instrumentalists are all wannabe singers. Discuss.
 

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