Piano recording

[Michael Gamble]

Hello All
It is a well known fact in the recording industry that the piano is the most
difficult of instruments to record faithfully. The reason is that it is a
percussion instrument and standing waves tend to add and subtract from the
original. I have found that I can record piano very well using "Boundary
Level Mics" and the cheapest of those I found came from the Radio Shack in
their "Realistic" brand, under the name "Pressure Zone Microphone" - or -
"PZM" Cat.No.22-1090B. They are battery powered and mounted on a steel plate
about 6" square. They should be mounted about 8" apart on a large smooth
surface (a biggish table will do) and about 6' away from the middle of the
curve of the grand. They are supposed to take an AA type battery but work
much better on 12v. The noise level is quite acceptably low. 
Regards from a dusky evening in the Downland Village
Michael G.(UK)


-----Original Message-----
From: Roy [mailto:roy.peters@mindspring.com] 
Sent: 27 September 2005 13:44
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Grotrian Cymbalese

Ric:
There is a program called Goldwave you can use to record to your laptop.
You can download an evaluation copy for free.  I have used it to record my
daughters on violin for auditions.    You can save the files as MP3's or
wave files.  I don't know if it is the recording quality you are looking for
or not.  It probably mostly depends on the quality of mic you use.  You can
either use the builtin mic on the computer, or buy a better one to plug in.


The URL is: http://www.goldwave.com/

Roy Peters

-----Original Message-----
From: Ric Brekne <ricbrek@broadpark.no>
Sent: Sep 27, 2005 3:01 AM
To: pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Subject: Grotrian Cymbalese


Sometimes wish I had a really easy way of recording sounds in good 
enough quality to make available to the list. Anyone have a good solution ?

Cheers
RicB