Recording - May 2012 - 18

What mics were inside the piano? Right on top of the bass strings of the piano a Bruel and Kjaer 4040 was placed on a Rowi clip; this placement yields the bass thunder, but only if it is performed. The 4040 has both a transistor and a tube as a dual option. The tube side of this dual-output hybrid was used for this. Only 100 of these were ever made. These mics all have 130/200 Volt preamps made by Bruel and Kjaer and DPA Microphones. Then close in at the nape of the curve an NOS DPA 4016 pair were placed for that “in your face” capability. This pair gets the lid sound reflections, which also has color. These were powered by a DPA 130 volt HMA 4000 preamp. Tell us about the mics that you placed underneath the piano—a location our readers might not have thought of before. Under the piano, a homemade ambisonic mic was created just for this performance. [To learn a bit more about ambisonic recording, see Scott Dorsey’s article in the April 2012 issue.—Ed.] It used four DPA 4021 first order cardioids in dual reversed X/Y and a single 4053 omni with a UA0777 nose cone making it a perfect omni. This is akin to a Blumlein but has individual controls of all four corners. The pattern is called a PentaCube, a clover leaf with an umbrella over it. We learned something from this old-time tried and true Count Basie type placement. The Penta-Cube revealed that the piano makes polar pattern changes and movement under the sound board that are not in alignment with what is going on above the sound board. This might be why putting a piano on carpet degrades its sound so much. Again the Ressino upgrade strengthens this phenomenon.

Dare we ask—were there any other mics involved? In the audience a Grado 2" sphere Scalar Mic was placed twelve feet high in the fifth row for audience response and deep natural reverb. What was the recording chain for all these signals? The recording chain after the 200 and 130 Volt mic preamp by DPA was a pair of 8-channel mic preamps with 24-bit/96 kHz A/D converters: one ADDA 2408-r by Digital Audio Denmark, and one Aphex 1788A. The data were recorded on a TASCAM X48 hard disk recorder. The entire chain was monitored on a Midas Venice console reference mixed into a TASCAM DV-RA1000-HD recording at DSD (1bit/2.8224 MHz). The sound was monitored on Grado HP-1 and RS-1 headphones.

The Mixing Engineer

Duke Markos is technical director for NPR’s JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater, broadcast in DTS surround sound; he’s also the recording engineer for NPR’s Piano Jazz, and he records, edits, and mixes a variety of other projects. How did the project come to you? Duke Markos: The tracks were delivered on a hard drive—16 tracks at 24bit/96 kHz. Gary provided excellent documentation. Diagrams of the set-up had exact mic locations and room dimensions. He also sent pictures of the set-up and detailed logs of the session. What is your approach to working with a piano? Start with a good piano that’s been well maintained. The artist must be comfortable with the instrument. Have it tuned the day of the recording and have it touched up during the session if needed. Listen closely and have the pianist check the piano before the tuner leaves, if possible. A squeaky pedal or outof-tune notes can ruin your session. This might seem basic, but there are many recordings that have these flaws. Take the lid off if possible. This will improve the sound of the piano in your recording.

RECORDING MAY 2012

Recording - May 2012

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