Basic Recording Techniques: The Piano 

my god, how nice it is to see a comparison video where the instrumentalist is actually playing the same piece of music in each comparison.

Great video! I like how you explain how far away each mic should be from the other and the different sound you will get from each setup.

Awesome information -- thank you very much. A minor note of correction - most of the sound of the piano is in the soundboard, not in the hammer/strings. A piano without a soundboard sounds very much like a cross between a guitar and a harpsichord -- the sound you hear is resonance within wood. So that changes target distance a little bit sometimes. However, you do have to beware of the 'striking' sound being closer to that sound source.

I'm actually a big fan of the first setup, mainly because it sounds so much warmer and full. I actually thought the stereo effect was a nice touch, but hearing the lower notes coming out the right side was a bit...strange. I would have never thought having it flipped would make it feel so weird to me.

The first set up was incredible. Real as i have 2 ears.

I love that you guys covered the AT2020. I got one when I bought pencil condensers for use as drum overheads and haven't used it for anything, now I know it sounds good

you have so many instrument talent. you can drum, guitar and piano.

The comparison in sound between the two setups was super helpful. Thanks!

Great Video and LOADS of clarity here..I have watched a few now on micing the Piano and sound is wishy washy and disappointing on nearly all of them

I was wondering why they were all audiotechnica mics xD

That first setup sounds amazing

That was a great video. Really noticeable differences. My preference is 3,1,2.

Excelente, muchas gracias por los ejemplos!

Thank you for this comparison!

Thank you so much.

Great techniques! You initial comment about pianos being he most complex (more than 7,000 parts) of all acoustic instruments is flawed...the piano must take second place. The pipe organ is FAR more complex in a myriad of ways. Whereas a piano has only 88 keys and only 3 foot controls, a typical 3-manual theatre pipe organ has 215 keys, and 183 of those keys have two depths of depression (second touch) to produce a second sound from the same keys that effectively gives the organist 198 key strokes. The feet generally have a dozen controls, but the hands must manipulate hundreds of stop switches. And it's worth mentioning that a particular key can have nearly an infinite possibility of sounds not to mention a variety of different octaves produced from the same key; whereas, a piano key will always produce only one sound at one frequency. A brief research of the Atlantic City Midmer-Losh pipe organ shows it has 33,114 pipes that speak from 7 chambers into an auditorium of nearly 7 acres housed in 5.5 million cubic feet of airspace. There are 449 different sounding pipe ranks, and the largest pipe is 64' 9" and produces a zero distortion frequency of 8 cycles per second (about 1 octave above an earthquake), and it was crafted out of an Oregon fir tree that was 785 years old. The shortest pipe is 1/4" and produces a frequency of 17K cycles per second. There are 1,235 stop tab switches to control the infinite sound possibilities using the 510 keys from both hands and feet. The organ has 7 manual keyboards for the hands, four 5-octave, two 6-octave, and one 88-key manual...again, the second touch adds even more key action. It has more than 450 relay bars that electrically connect the pipe ranks to any of the keyboards. How much wire to connect up this instrument? The wire is so long that you could wrap all of them around the equator 2 1/2 times!! I could go on, but a piano has only 88 keys and 3 pedals to control sound. That said, thanks for sharing a great way to mic grand pianos!

Thanks a lot for this video. :D It helped a lot. Finally I know how does that At2020 sounds. :)

These setups are all great, but what sounds great in a solo piano recording is not the same as that same sound will sit in a mix. AT makes top notch gear 👍

Hi… thank you all for this great insight on how to mic a piano…

1st is amazing.

BTW the sound is mostly emitted by the soundboard, but you knew that. ;)

legit wondering what song he was pulling from

Often i like an XY setup best, AB always makes the low notes obviously go through 1 mic more and to me feel slightly unbalanced.

CHARLIE!!!!!! was not expecting to see you when I loaded this video!!!!

Do you have any recommendations on recording the grand piano in a room with quite a bit of background noise? There are three fan openings in my room and when I play my recordings at loud volumes, the background noise becomes very noticeable.

gracias

Thank you, sir.

The two AT4060 sound outstanding but either I pay the rent for 3 months or I buy the mics :(

2:18 peanist

At 3:00, the pianist looks very... stoic.

i really liked the first option but when i tried it, the LDC's kept sagging. Are your stands counter weighted? If so, can you provide a link? I haven't been able to find any.

Spaced LDC 1:26 XY SDC 2:24 Mono 3:20

What if your recording upright piano?

I like the first

I have the third setup microphone and it does not sound like this at all. I am wondering if it's my microphone

why the first sounds like leftside right? I usually hear the bass on the left side.

I gotta ask what's the name of the song?

can i use itt on normal piano but not a grand piano ?

Trying to save money here. Thinking about getting 2 AT2020 mics to record my baby grand. Would I get a full frequency range (nice lows, crispy highs) doing this? Thanks.

was that Reign of Kindo's Breath Again?

In this fellow;s mind, omnidirectional microphones don't even exist.

Are AT4040s and AT4021s also good for recording piano?

One mic - mono track, that's how to do it.

What was the name of this tune?

Take the lid off

It depends..

I don't like the first recoding technique. I can always hear, that its recorded with 2 mic's. Doesn't sound good that way

Wow this piano sounds like crap. I can't believe this is the same Yamaha that makes the CFX.

above all, i hear a detuned piano which is in bad shape. this would be fine for me, if somebody is playing a piano cover at his home, but as a product video, i don´t know...

It's sound not as good in my ears.

you have no idea how piano produces sound lol

too the piano is not in tune but helpful video

Wow. That's an exceptionally badly maintained and tuned instrument. Just perfect for crappy recording examples that gives you trebles on the left. Kudos for calling this a professional presentation of what I thought was a respectable company.