Freesound Forums

Hi

Im planning a improv session with my newly aquired Carrilon Centino Laptop with EMU 1616 soundcard, and I was hoping to include piano in the session as a friend of mine is a pianist. I need recomendations on good microphones for recording pianos. I was thinking a couple of decent condenser mics placed either side of the piano top with the lid open. Any other ideas?

I've recorded piano with different microphones. I think you should choose large diaphragm ones.

Shure SM57, which I love very much for recording anything, is nice honestly. Sound by Audio Technica AE5100 or ATM10 is also nice. Rode NT5s can give you clear crispy feeling. But all of these are small diaphragm products. Though they have good responses to the sound, they can hardly get the whole figure of it.

My best recommendation is to search for AKG C414B-ULS, which is previous model of C414B-XLS and much cheeper that that, I think. The sound it gives you is dreaming. Especially for low-notes. Neumann TLM103 may also be good choice. Its value for the price is unbelievable. In case you can't afford for these, you can choose other large diaphragms for less than 500 bucks.

If the piano is solo, you can work with an open lid. If there are other, loud instruments, put the lid on half-stick. Normally, a closed lid sounds too boomy, but there are no hard fast rules to any of this. Stick your head under the lid while your friend plays. Experiment, and see what sounds good to you. As for mics, A couple of PZM's attached to the underside of the lid is a traditional micing method, and sounds pretty decent. This also has the advantage of being low profile so you could close the lid completely if needed. I agree, condensors will sound better, but, depending on the style of music, you need to make sure they can handle the high transients from a piano. Let us hear the results.

Good Luck,

wee