I was looking for the info on how to record a piano sound. I have no sound recording background so most of the recommended videos were overwrelming or confusing. Out of the dozens of videos I watched this is the best one. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Mark. That was very useful. Certainly, the location of the mic when pointing at the hammers gave some breadth to the soundstage in what is an acoustically difficult room duento reflections.
Great video thank you, did you need to post processing to sync the recorded sound by the Zoom H6 with the video, or they were in sync during the recording?
Thanks for watching! Great question. Yes, I synced the Zoom audio in post. For this video I synced the Zoom audio manually in Ableton. I placed each sample on it's own track and placed it as best I could to sync with the video. Monitoring gain levels on the zoom is tricky when recording yourself, and I didn't do a sound check each time I moved the microphone. Because of that, I also adjusted the volume of each sample in Ableton to match a similar peak level. That meant each sample would have relatively the same loudness for viewers. I felt that would give a more neutral impression of the tone of each microphone placement. I recorded the dialogue using a Rode Wireless Go II connected directly to the camera. I left the dialog volume consistent throughout. I'd probably manage the audio workflow differently if I did the video again. I filmed the video over the course of about two hours, so I was often concerned about batteries running out or memory filling up on devices, especially my camera. I stopped and started a lot on both the camera and the Zoom. This created extra work in post with sorting through files and lining up the clips. A better approach may have been to let the zoom record nonstop and then sync the dialog to that. Many video editors can do that very quickly if given two sources recorded at the same time.
Great observation. The small room leads to some issues with the very short reverb in there. I'm hoping to have a chance to do a video in a larger space where the reflections will be longer and have a more pleasant sound.
@@markandrewpiano It's true. But the peculiarity of human hearing is such that if you add reverberation to a recording, then when listening, it is added again, in the listener’s room. And the human brain perceives this as strange, because there is no double reverberation in nature. If you listen with headphones, it's acceptable. But if from monitors, then reverberation is added in any listening room. Therefore, when recording, they usually place several microphones, one inside the piano, the other in the room. And these 2 sources are used to find the best sound on the final recording.
The piano itself is not great, and the room is probably the last one to record in, too small, too many early reflections, un-broken square shape, almost to the point of rendering the experiment moot. One tip I've learned is to place some sort of coincident pair just above the extended plane of the lid, pointed at the harp, at the same nape/bend in the middle, as the lid is a reflector and you're getting those reflections mixed with direct-off-the-harp sound waves, confusing the sound with possible phase cancellations. OR, even better, remove the lid, it's really for live sound projection, works against clear recording.
@@markandrewpiano You're basically doing that, Min 9:00, at 6', just bring mics a bit more close to piano, that will then be high enough to exceed the plane of the lid by just a tad. Mics can be A,B or ORTF - or -- the xy as per your Zoom Mic. Probably your tripod pole is about 12-18" out from the rim of the piano. Aim mix downward toward the harp.
