Pinning, Friction, Tone, etc.

[Phil Bondi]

> 2. Recording the true sound of a piano is not an easy task.  
> Microphone placement and room acoustics are critical.  Cheap 
> mics properly placed will produce superior results to superb 
> mics badly placed.

Jim, great post, and thank you for saying this. As a 'coming out of
retirement' performer from time to time, I can say first hand that this
is true. I've worked with sound people and sound systems that would make
any audiophile drool, and the sound from the piano was garbage..yet, my
Shure SM58, properly placed in any given piano, will produce an
acceptable 'live' sound that is not bad..not as good as what could be
produced with a better mic, but then again, a better mic might NOT make
it better.

One of my best friends back is NY is a sound engineer. He has taken
great pride in working on his 'acoustic chops' .. Meaning really
concentrating on drum sounds in particular and being able to use the
available 'room' to produce a good piano sound. He admits that the best
way to mic most pianos is with 2 mics..one close to the plate and one
far away from the piano. You can't do this live, of course, but his
experience tells him this is where he would start, but not necessarily
end up.

Sound engineers are a lot like piano tuners: for every piano tuner
there's at least 10 ways to tune it correctly, or 10 ways to mic it!

Thanks Jim,

-Phil Bondi(FL) 
phil@philbondi.com