[CAUT] Re: Miking pianos

[James Ellis]

Here I go again - telling myself I'll stay out of this, but then jumping
into the discussion again.

I have not done much in the way of piano miking for amplified bands, but I
have made some observations.  I have done a bit of microphone placement for
recordings, and I still do.

A CASE IN POINT:  Some 10-15 years ago, there was a big Dino concert in
Knoxville at a large church.  The place was packed - standing room only.
Dino was playing a white SD-10, and there was a dig white BALDWIN
18-wheeler parked outside where everyone could see it.  I found a seat on
the back row of the balcony.  The sound was loud, and the tone quality was
horrible - very bright, noisy, and really twangy.  The SD-10 didn't sound
like an SD-10 at all.  It sounded like an amplified tin pan.  From where I
was sitting, I could see mics IN the piano.  Nevermind the loud tinny
twangy sound, the audience loved it, but the skin on my back crawled, and I
would rather have been somewhere else.

When it was over, and people were lining up to buy CDs, I took a look at
the mics in the piano.  Two or three - forgot the number - high-quality
directional condenser mics mounted on a special fixture designed to clamp
to the plate struts of the SD-10.  The mics were about an inch above the
strings, parallel to the strings, and pointed right at the dampers.
Directional mics just above the strings, and in that configuration!!  Oh
Boy!!  I could not have come up with an arrangement that would be more
tinny-twangy if I had tried.

MY PREFERENCE:  For making recordings:  Piano lid up.  About half way back
on the piano, draw an imaginary line parallel to the underside of the lid,
perpendicular to the straight back side of the piano, from the hinge area
of the piano to a spot about a foot out from the front edge of the lid
along the curved side of the piano.  Put the stereo mics there on that
imaginary line.  Set them looking down at an angle just inder the lid, and
pointed to look back along that imaginary line under the lid.  The exact
distance from the piano will depend on the acousitcs of the room, and how
much room ambience you want in the recording.  Closer for a small room with
very short reverb time, a little farther back for a larger room - but trial
and error until you get the amount of room ambience you want.

My thinking is, at that angle, the mics are not in line with high frequency
reflections off the lid, and not perpendicular to the soundboard either.
It ends up getting a good blend of the entire piano, while staying away
from the action noise and reflections.  This works for me almost every
time, and I have found that just an ordinary good mic at the right place
sounds worlds better than the best mic ever made put at the wrong place and
turned the wrong way.

Obviously, this won't work for amplified band, because of the feedback.
Did anyone mention pressure zone mics?  They should work well for piano in
amplified band applications.  Crown makes a bunch of them, or at least,
they used to make them.

By the way, the reason that mics placed under the piano have a dark sound
is because of the reverb between floor and piano soundboard.  That two-way
reflection has a resonant frequency that falls right in the fundamental
mid-range of the piano, and it tends to overpower any brilliance that might
be there.  In other words, the mic is caught in a low-frequency sonic
crossfire.

I hope this helps a little bit.

Sincerely, Jim Ellis