Recording in The Studio
Grand pianos are heard over a
symphony orchestra, but they
can also whisper like a lullaby.
Here are some tips for recording
them:
• Let the style of the music
dictate the microphones and
mic placements.
• Sometimes a given type
of music will cause you
to move the piano into a
different physical space to
take advantage of its distinct
acoustic properties.
• The best way to learn which of
mic placement works best for
you is experimenting.
Cutting Through a Mix
If you need the piano to cut
through a mix, try a spaced
pair of small-diaphragm
microphones with a cardioid
pattern about six inches above
the hammers. This enhances
the percussive aspects and the
sounds of the hammers hitting
the strings.
Begin with mics about 15 inches
apart and listen to the balance
between the low and high
strings. Ensure two mics are
spaced far enough so that both
the highest and lowest notes are
pretty similar in level, but close
enough together that the notes
in the middle of the piano don’t
disappear.
Sitting in the Track
When the piano’s primary
role on a session is support
rather than being the featured
instrument, a spaced pair of
large-diaphragm mics inside the
piano can be great.
To do so, place a pair of large-
diaphragm microphones with a
cardioid pattern facing toward
the strings, about 18 inches
apart, four to six inches above
the strings, and six to eight
inches behind the hammers.
The sound now will be mellower
than mics placed directly above
the hammers. If you want to
darken the recorded sound of
the piano even more, move the
mics farther from the hammers,
closer to the end of the piano.
stereo mic configuration with
two omnidirectional mics
placed at the lip of the piano.
The amount of ambience in
the recording can be increased
by moving the microphones
farther away from the
instrument.
To do so, start with a pair of
omni mics placed in the bend of
the piano, 15–20 inches apart,
and pointing at the piano lid
(most of the sound the audience
hears is the reflection from
this lid). Experiment with the
distance, the farther away you
place the mics, the farther apart
you can put them (up to about
five feet, if the pair of mics is
five or six feet back).
Contemporary Commercial Recordings
For day-to-day work for rock,
pop, or country radio, use a pair
of AKG C414 microphones: one
near the hammers up high and
the other roughly where the
bass strings cross the lower-mid
strings. This setup combines
some of the top end of a mic
near the hammers with the
enhanced low frequencies of a
mic over the bass strings.
AKARSH SHEKHAR
How to Record
the Piano Like
a Pro
The C414 microphones are
large-diaphragm mics, one
mic is placed about 18 inches
into the piano from the highest
strings and about four inches
behind the hammers. The
second mic is 18 inches into the
piano from the low side and 36
inches away from the hammers,
or almost 30 inches from the
foot of the piano.
XY Miking
Cardioid microphones in
XY pattern is for phase
coherence. An XY stereo setup
is a coincident technique,
meaning the capsules of the
two microphones are as close
together as possible and angled
90 degrees to each other to
produce a stereo image.
Experiment or start with the
XY pair between four and eight
feet in front of the piano and
five or six feet off the ground. If
that doesn’t work (or captures
too much of the room), move the
microphone closer to the piano.
A-B Stereo Mic
The classical version of close-
miking uses a traditional A-B
The
Score Magazine
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