Piano
During this lesson we put Harvey on the piano to play the piano riff for Superstition by Stevie Wonder.
At one point we opened up the top of the piano to reveal how the inside works.
This showed us the internal changes made when using the piano's pedals (Soft Pedal, Sortenuto Pedal, Damper/Sustain Pedal).
- Opening the lid of the piano makes the sound brighter.
We placed one Aston mic at the back of the piano to achieve a more mellow and fuller sound.
There are many methods of microphone positioning, such as the XY method, which is a common mi setup that usually produces a pretty decent sound. For this you place two microphones that are right next to each other so that the diaphragms are as close to each other as possible without touching.
XY
However in this case we felt that we only needed one mic, which worked really well.
Here is a link to show more microphone positions and the pros and cons that come with each setup:
Some good explanations here, you just need to go that little bit deeper to show understanding, for example, the X/Y is to do with reducing phasing issues.
ReplyDeleteIt would also be useful to just briefly describe some of the complexities that can occur when recording the piano, as was discussed in the class. This would also help explain some of the choices as to the miking techniques and placements.