[pianotech] mp3 recordings - How

[Kent Swafford]

I have a good bit of experience providing mp3 files here and on CAUT.

Close-miking can be great. Recording music and listening to music are two very different things. Close-miking is not the same as "listening with your ear in the piano"; for one thing, one can turn down the volume of the close-miked recording unlike when your head is in a piano.

Close-miking minimizes the influence of the acoustics of the room upon the sound of the recording.

Close-miking allows (forces) one to lower the gain of your recording, which tends to minimize environmental sounds like air conditioning, the refrigerator, outside traffic, playing children, etc.

Your distant miking instructions are fine if you have a beautiful sounding room and a perfectly quiet environment, but they would contribute to the apple-oranges problem since everyone's room will sound slightly different.

Kent Swafford




On Jun 2, 2012, at 2:39 PM, Mark Schecter wrote:

> I'd like to suggest a few ideas regarding audio files, MP3s, and recording techniques, in hopes of helping people get good recorded results with a minimum of trial and error.
> 
> * Audio files: Most recording software, regardless of hardware platform, allows some choice as to output file format, i.e. uncompressed such as .wav, or AIFF (Apple); and compressed such as MP3, AAC (Apple), and a few other less universal formats. I would suggest that the original file format that you record into be as high-fidelity as possible, and then in a separate step, convert it to a compression format. This is preferable to recording the original in MP3, from which there is no way to recover any lost fidelity. Higher sample rate/bit rate is better, i.e. 48kHz beats 44.1kHz, and more bits (per sample word) is better, i.e. 24 bits beats 16 bits. So to be specific, I would suggest originals be in .wav or .aiff or better format, as this is 16 bit 44.1kHz, or the same as CDs. From that you can down-sample/convert it to any compressed format as many different times as you want until you find the right balance between fidelity and size. iTunes does this conversion easily on either Mac or PC.
> 
> * MP3s: This is a compression protocol that gives the user a range of bit rates to choose from, depending on how small or large the resulting file can be. If you choose a low bit rate/small file, you do sacrifice substantial fidelity in exchange for smallness. But if you use higher bit rates, like 192K-256K or more bits/second, the fidelity is quite decent. I would suggest people start there, try a few rates, see how it sounds, and then perhaps we could agree on a format/bit rate to all use for the sake of uniformity. (Or not ...)
> 
> * Recording techniques: (These are just suggestions, based on what I've seen excellent recording engineers doing. There are many other possibilities which I don't mean to discount. I just want to help people get good results quickly.)
> 
> While there are no hard and fast rules, there is such a thing as too close-miking. Almost nobody (besides David Andersen - hi DA!) listens to a piano with their ears inside the rim of the piano. Getting too close has two primary effects that I prefer to avoid: 1. Excess dynamic range, and 2. Excess local details/anomalies. Skipping any long discussion of these two things for now, I would suggest the following as ballparking guidelines:
> 
> Position the microphone(s) (or the recorder if the mics are built-in) somewhere within the limits of the two zones described as follows. 1. For the closer end of the range, position the mic directly above the rim, at about half the distance between the top of the rim and the edge of the lid, somewhere in the curve, pointing somewhere between at the soundboard and at the lid. You will get a more balanced sound if the lid is all the way up, but try the short stick too. An alternative position for the closer range is higher, a few inches below the plane of the open lid, and one to three feet outside the outline of the rim. If you're using two mics on separate stands, separate them by three to eight feet, but at the same distance from the lid.
> 
> 2. The more distant position would be somewhere up to about twenty feet distant from the curve of the rim, depending on what the size of the room will allow, and how much room sound vs direct sound you want to hear. Height about eye/ear level. Location within the following triangle: 1. Project a line from the middle of the length of the lid at right angle to the straight side of the piano. 2. Project a line from the bass end of the pinblock through the treble end of the bass bridge. These two lines form a triangle within which you can emphasize bass by moving toward the tail of the piano, or a more natural balance by moving toward the right-angle line.
> 
> By the way, I second Dale's choice of the H4n as a viable and affordable device that allows all of the possiblities above, and others as well, such as recording four tracks simultaneously, and using two external mics along with or instead of the two built-in mics.
> 
> There are volumes more to say about all this, already written by others much more knowledgable than myself, but I hope this helps people get started.
> 
> ~Mark Schecter
> 
> On 6/2/12 5:14 AM, Mark Dierauf wrote:
>> That's quite a nice sound for a inexpensive handheld unit, isn't it? I'm
>> not hearing much from the high treble, so I'd recommend getting a couple
>> of stand-alone mics and stands so you can play around with placement and
>> balance to get a more representative sound. The piano sounds great -
>> I'll bet your customer is one happy camper!