Hi, Kent. I take your points, and agree to some extent, but I would like to counter with some different perspective. Interspersed ... On 6/3/12 12:04 PM, Kent Swafford wrote: > I have a good bit of experience providing mp3 files here and on > CAUT. I'm trying to incorporate my experience prepping pianos for both recordings in studios and for live sound reinforcement, and hearing the results of various approaches used by various tech people. > 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. No doubt close-miking has advantages, but it's no panacea, and it introduces its own problems. The mic's ear is in the piano, and is at some location in there, with "walls" and "ceiling" very close (especially with the lid closed, but either way), forming a comb-filtering resonant chamber that definitely affects frequency response. Yes, you can (and must) turn down the level, but doing so will not eliminate the peaks and valleys in the response curve that exist at any given point inside there. I don't think there is a single neutral point inside any piano that sounds as "natural" as what we usually hear from a piano from outside that chamber. By natural, I mean the "normal" sound output of the piano combined into a totality which is received by a listener in a room that is also occupied by that piano. Close-miking with the lid open would be better than with it closed. But in my opinion, the variables within the different sizes and shapes of piano cabinets are just as confounding as those imposed by various rooms. In the end, it's always a compromise. I would just hope to help people achieve a decent sound easily, without introducing avoidable anomalies. > Close-miking minimizes the influence of the acoustics of the room > upon the sound of the recording. True, but the piano's case is also a room that affects the sound. > 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. This is true and a definite advantage. > 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. Agreed. For our purposes, I lean toward the closer of the positions I described, directly above the rim and halfway between it and the lid, at the curve, as the position for grand recording that best balances the variables for some consistency in results among different sizes of pianos and the rooms they're in. It is close, but not too close. It is far enough away from the board that it allows the sound to combine and blend out peaks that come from point-source areas of the board and within the resonant chamber. It combines sound coming directly from the board and reflecting off the lid. Ultimately, there is no single perfect solution that will give uniform results, so trying to find something easily definable and achievable by non-pros with limited equipment, time, and skills is more what I'm hoping for. > > Kent Swafford ~Mark Schecter > > > > > 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! > > >
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