Modartt user forum » Pianoteq user forum » Skip, Glenn, and others: Try here for the video with better sound
Try here:
http://dotsub.com/view/75bca3ac-bfe5-48...f3a5638b41
Don't know how long it will stay there. If this link doesn't take you to directly to the video, go to the main page for the dotsub.com site and search for the video named Close mic'ed piano .
Jake,
Thanks - that one works, and no, that other one I had found was different. Nice sound!
Greg.
Well, it's that very specific piano sound that interests me.
Well, it's that very specific piano sound that interests me.
Hello Jake,
True the piano, probably a Yamaha, was recorded with extremely close miking, yet all of the notes were clearly heard. Here is how I believe this is achieved -- in a word: compression.
Go back and listen to these aspects of the sound:
Despite extremely close miking, one does not hear severe transients when hammers strike the strings, although one does hear the high frequency harmonic tones associated with notes of the piano's entire keyboard.
Despite extremely close miking, one hears low notes, high notes and mid keyrange notes with essentially equal loudness.
Despite the singers being miked extremely closely, one does not hear sibilants (exploding consonants), but their lower and higher vocal registers sound essentially equal in loudness.
When the drums and Hammond organ comes in, one still hears the vocalists, the piano, as well as the two most recent instruments come in, with no single instrument / voice drowning out the sound.
When the audience's cheers and applause are brought in, their sound is dynamically one loudness (and very controlled at that).
Now, there was no audible "pumping" of compressors, but for all of the above sound sources to be played and heard with relatively controlled dynamics, I can only conclude they had a very good sound crew manning some very good mixing boards and associated compressors and de-essers.
I hope the above aspects of the sound help describe what you heard in the video in general and the Yamaha in particular, as Ray Charles was a Yamaha-endorsed artist.
Cheers,
Joe
I would like that Ray Charley was alive to see pianoteq.
OOPSs, I mean play pianoteq, not see.
;-)
I can hear that compression may have been used on the piano. On the other hand, that mic position (over the harp, instead of the strings, maybe ?), may have helped to register the transients that are picked up (and the sound of the harp\the sound of the sound board near the rim) while keeping the overall sound fairly clean. And the vocal mics are facing off stage—there’s some isolation there from the monitors sending out sound to the audience.
Anyway, I’m getting a very similar sound from PianoTeq by putting the binaural head slightly below the upper edge of the rim near that low mic position. Still experimenting. I’d tried putting mics back there before, but never with good effect. The binaural head works much, much better—gets the sound of the harp and the wood right.
But maybe a lot of the sound does come from compression. Which makes me want to learn a lot more about compression…
At about 1:45, you can see a label on the piano, but I can’t quite read it from that angle. Sounds like a Yamaha.