Recording - May 2016 - 25

Other options
For an open lid, I've already described
spaced and XY pairs placed either at the
edge of the case, or deep within the
piano. I tend to gravitate toward the player, and I've spaced two 414s as wide as
the width of the piano, 2 inches from the
strings, right up on the hammers. Another
option is to bring that pair together, or XY
a pair of small diaphragms right up near
the hammers toward the middle. This will
yield a percussive sound with a lot of
attack. Any of these techniques might get
you a lot of pedal noise, though, and
depending on the player and piano, that
may be too much.
5

You might solve that problem by going
to an overlooked spot on the piano: the
foot. In Nathan Rosenberg's article on
our website he says, "There is a wonderful place at the tail, just about where the
back leg is, or often just outside the
case. Here, the various registers tend to
project in a surprisingly uniform manner." That's a good place for a mono
recording, too. Thanks, Nathan!
Another accepted technique is to
place one mic toward the middle of the
group of high strings (toward the music
stand) and a second more toward the
foot of the piano. Typically these would
be condensers in omni configuration.
Another extreme option is what Elton
John producer Gus Dudgeon did-
remove the lid. This allows you to hang
mics above the strings almost anywhere
your heart desires. It can result in a considerably brighter sound with less low
end power, and that may not be for
everyone, but some people swear by it.
RECORDING MAY 2016

A spaced pair of omnis about 2 or 3 feet
above the strings would be reasonable.
Of course there are the "sound holes",
which aren't really sound holes, but can
yield some interesting results. One technique involves an XY pair about halfway
between the lid and case, pointed diagonally toward the strings. People have
also been known to stick a directional
mic right down into a hole, usually as a
supplement to more traditional techniques (Figure 7). This is the one situation where a dynamic might suit you. I
once put an SM57 in the middle hole,
ran its cable directly to two guitar pedals (delay and distortion), ran that to a
vintage Fender amp, and miked that
amp like I would a guitar. I put the amp

in an isolation booth across the room
and closed the door and it was still feeding back! The point is, there are any
number of creative things you can do,
like miking under the piano to help bolster your low end or for a mellow sound.
Indeed, there's an endless variety of
spaced pair, XY, mono and multi-mic configurations you can try. We've talked mostly about condensers because that's more
common, but in any of the situations I've
described, you could substitute ribbons.
We're not done, though. We haven't
talked about the Mid-Side (M-S) pair,
which can be a great way to use ribbons.
An M-S array makes use of two mics
to create three tracks. Mic 1-the Mid-
is a cardioid, pointed at the sound

http://www.dpamicrophones.com

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