Recording a Grand Piano

Today we looked at different ways we could mic up and record a grand piano. We were given an article from Sound on Sound magazine which had a few techniques already on it but, after reading it through, decided to try our own technique(s) instead.

To begin, we opened up the lid on the grand piano so that we could see the strings, sound holes, dampers, and hammers. This allowed us to place the microphones closer to the source of the sound, so they could pick up the sound produced by the piano clearer. We used three Rode NT-1A Condenser Microphones for this job, placing one above the higher pitched strings, one above the lower pitched strings, and one about 1 - 2 metres away from the piano to record the overall sound and ambiance of the instrument. Since these microphones are condensers,  they have a high sensitivity and can therefore pick up the sound at a higher level which makes them useful for this particular job.

The NT-1A has a very good frequency response for recording a grand piano (shown to the right). As you can see, the frequency response is fairly level, with a small presence peak between 100Hz and about 500Hz, and also boosts frequencies above 1000Hz slightly more than anything below this level. In general this is a very good frequency response, but it is especially good for recording piano due to the sheer range of frequencies that a piano can produce which make it such a popular and beautiful instrument to listen to - and we want to be able to capture all of those frequencies, and the NT-1A allows us to do just that.


The polar pattern (left) is also a notable feature of this microphone that allows it to record the piano well. Since it is cardioid, this allows it to pick up all frequencies at the exact dB level they are being played at as long as the microphone is facing the source. It also reduces sound from the back of the microphone, helping to eliminate unwanted background noise (depending where the microphone itself is placed, of course).




After setting up the microphones, we moved onto the next hurdle: plugging them in. Usually this isn't a problem, but in this situation our recording space (an empty classroom) was across the corridor from the studio and did not have an input box to plug the microphones into. To overcome this problem, we used a multi-core audio cable (shown in the image below) to run along the floor all the way to the studio, allowing us to plug all of the cables indirectly into the jack field. Next, we placed a small monitor (also shown below) in the room near our performer so that we could talk to them via the talkback button on the mixing desk. The reason we didn't used headphones this time was solely down to our performer's preferences - the headphones would only get in the way of the performance.

After our recording, we decided to try using a D112 Bass microphone to record the lower frequencies from the piano. We set up the dynamic microphone in the same way as the one we have just replaced, and after recording another performance we found that this gave the song a lot more bass to it and made it sound deeper in general, which might be what you want from the recording.