AA - Week 1 - Stereo Micing

This week was stereo micing, and rather than show off what I know I decided to venture into uncharted territory (ie. make it up as I go along). Jake and I recorded piano due to the ease of access of the Steinway Grand. All the results and pictures are in the .zip at the bottom of this entry.

We started with an XY positioning of two Neumann KM84s, the difference being we placed them above the pianist's head. The result was fairly analogous to the sound a pianist would hear, but is pretty boring to listen to. Note: one of the KMs had considerably more noise than the other- I have sent a support form already.

Next was what I considered the complete opposite of the previous recording, a spaced pair of KM84s placed at either front corner of the piano and pointed into the body with the lid closed. The result is much nicer than the last, with a much healthier stereo field represented.

We then moved on to using Neumann U87s. First we simply used a spaced stereo pair as I had never actually tried it before. The outcome ended up a little lacklustre, particularly in comparison to some of...*

Week 1 Audio Arts (.ZIP, 1.35MB)

[1] David Grice. "Audio Arts: Semester 1, Week 1. Overview of stereo recording for live performance." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 4/03/2008.

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*(200 word count reached, feel free to disregard the following)... the more tricky micing techniques possible. I find it does not really capture the sound of the piano accurately, and feels somewhat fake.

We then elaborated on the Midside technique with the aptly-named "Bumside". This involved a U87 placed in the body of the piano, and another underneath the piano. I originally performed the 'duplicate, invert and pan' on the U87 in the piano body, however this made the mic underneath more prominent, meaning a loss of high end. Thus I simply recycled the process for the mic underneath, and the result was quite nice. One complaint I have is that having a mic underneath means the clunk of the pedal is much more prominent, so I probably would not use an omni polar pattern underneath again. (You can also hear my phone get a message right at the end of the recording- whoops!)

Finally we used the Midside technique for a room mic recording. I am surprised at how well this came out, the added ambience of the room really brightens up the sound. I imagine this would work very well when combined with the spaced stereo pair of KM84s, or even on its own in a more acoustically piano-friendly environment.