MPW // How to Record an Upright Piano \\ Astraea

In this video we go through:

- How to record an upright piano and get a great sound
- Recording techniques for Upright pianos
- How to mic an upright piano and which mics to use when recording
- What gear you need to get a great sound which recording an upright piano
- What is phasing and how to avoid phasing when recording
- Matched pair microphones
- Which Preamps to use when recording an upright piano

Please let us know if you have any questions!

More from Astraea:

[relativity]

Thank you Astraea. This is quite possibly the best real world home recording of keys Ive seen. I generally avoid any key recording videos done in acoustically treated pro studios.
Thanks for this. Your keys sound amazing.
Im now a fan.

[dannygibor]

Thank you for the nice tips. The best tip I got from your video is to play with the different mic settings and to use matching mics until you get the sound that is good for you. You can always tweak it later on, of course, but catching the sound in the right positions is crucial if you're aiming for good quality 🙏🏻

[philcibley]

You should use either the 414 pair, or the 451 pair. When you combine them, you are getting comb filtering and other. phase problems because when the sound board is vibrating toward one pair, it is vibrating away from the other pair. Combining them will add frequency cancellations.

[andrewkuhar]

Sounds incredible and this is a great demonstration of what to try, how to do it, and why it makes a difference. I've only ever done pairs in the front, and never thought to use pencil condenser mics for that. That seems so obvious in retrospect, lol. Great choice with the C414's in the back, which unsurprisingly sound amazing.

[sumyupee]

Might be cool with a room mic as well. Seemed a bit contained. I like my piano to sound a bit more live, but that will depend on how you like the acoustics of your room. Could just use one ribbon if all your matched pairs are in use. You will also have the option to double the recording in your daw and flip the phase of one, and then hard pan both to give you a wide stereo veiw of your room, on a figure 8 ribbon.

[robemanuele]

This is exactly the information I was looking for - thank you so much for making this vid!

[cjfarran]

Great explanation! I've never tried put mics behind my upright.

[shubridhi]

I really struggles doing the recording with my piano but this one's surely gonna help me out thanks!

[johnhansenbristow]

the back sounds great. but the mix between both is really great. Thanks for the tips 😊

[ProfessorDan]

Great tutorial. I need to record an upright piano this summer and will try this four mic method. Thanks!

[fffffffffax]

cute… i have those sdc mics. been trying ribbons, very smooth. sounds echoey in there!

[JiihaaS]

Every string is its own sound source, so I'm afraid it's basically impossible to apply the 3:1 rule when close miking a piano with 2 mics. Also this whole 3:1 "rule" is based on so many assumptions that you are probably better off just using your ears.

If you wanna make sure no phase cancellation occurs, use a coincident pair, such as XY or MS. Or if you want to stick to a spaced pair, the only way to be absolutely sure is to check every string's phase one by one. Or just accept the fact that phase cancellation happens with spaced pair.

[Meteotrance]

May i have a suggestion, if you already have a matched pair on the string, you just need one microphone in omni position or figure 8 in the back and you can use the other as a room reverb mic, because of the phase issue you can have some trouble using 2 pair back and front, but just three mics should be fine like the decca tree position, for this last it's very common in classic music recording to have an over head front cardio and two surround back in omni position, it work fine in lot of situation and can be expand with close mic.

[muscularmusings]

that sounds incredible! The front & back together.. unreal

[CharlieMayMusic]

Great tips! Will have to try out micing the back

[modernmusicstudio]

Great setup! I like how you isolated with the couch cushions!

[dr_bodling]

This sounds amazing but I'm afraid I can't afford the $4k for all 4 mics. So let's say I'm just trying to casually record and want to buy only a single microphone. Would you recommend a single 452 b in the front or a single c414 in the back?

[Masaamusic]

Wonderful tutorial! Thank you so much!

[diegosatori]

Thanks i was going to record with 2 diferent microphones instead of my 2 match pair

[phoenixrising]

I think that's a lovely set up for 4 mics on a piano.