Why bother with accuracy?
I like the DPA 4060 miniature microphone a lot and take my stereo pair to nearly every gig. Although I have not used any other of their microphones I respect the company and it's reputation. I was not able to determine who authored the DPA-branded booklet (with accompanying SACD) I will be referring to. The German copy e.g. is (c) Mega Audio, which to me seems to be mainly a distributer for audio equipment. BTW, you can receive a copy of the SACD with accompanying booklet free of charge from DPA's local distributor.
So, what's up with "Miking a Grand Piano"?
The picture on the front page shows a strange sight. There is a nice looking grand in a fantastic hall, but the microphone pair, positioned right at the piano, seems to be aligned rather haphazardously. I assume they are cardioids since they are not mounted in parallel, on the other the hand they are quite far apart and angled sideways only slightly.
The booklet states that it can only provide guidelines, not recipes, but these guidelines should make sense! Talking about positioning an AB pair 1 to 2.5 m from the piano is one thing, showing a picture where the stand is about 30 cm from the lid of the grand is another, and all examples on the SACD are very close miked. Secondly, I don't believe aligning omnidirectional microphones in parallel to the fully open lid does not negate the acoustical influence of the lid.
Next comes ORTF, where the microphone pair is shown positioned as close as makes sense for an XY pair @ +-90°. But considering the much smaller stereophonic recording angle of the former, 96° as opposed to 190°, and the fact that modifying the panning of left and right source from full left & right will induce frequency-dependant phase-irregularities, this location should not be one's first choice.
A few pages later there is mention of an "oversized ORTF-configuration": Two cardioids at a distance of 40 cm and at an angle of 70°. There is no such thing! ORTF is defined as a distance of 17 cm from capsule to capsule and an angle of +-55° from the central axis. Anything else should be described by reference to a different framework, e.g. in the context of Williams' Stereophonic Zoom, according to which the Stereophonic Recording Angle of the above mentioned system would amount to 80°. IMHO this is far too shallow an angle to be located "over or just ahead of the curve of the piano".
And that pretty much sums it up with regards to the needs of the recording engineer.
To be fair, there is brief mention of utilizing a far AB setup "for recordings in large environments with favorable acoustics", which luckily goes for most places in which a grand is featured for a live performance. The positioning suggested is 2-3 m distant and at a height of 3-4 m. There are no samples on the SACD featuring a similar configuration, which is sad since Radio Denmark's concert hall is likely to be a formidable acoustic venue.
So what is missing?
- What does a grand sound like to the audience?
- What are the acoustic effects of the position of the lid?
- In what way does the grand project?
- At what distance should a distant AB pair be positioned relative to the piano?
- What distance should be between the microphones mounted in parallel?
- At what height should the setup be located? I personally stay in the range from between the edge of the grand and the height of the lid.
- What about positioning microphones under the piano? I used an XY pair once to good effect, boundary layer style miking on other occasions.
And on and on…
So, how to mike a grand?
Currently, on many occasions, I use an AB setup with two accurate omnidirectional microphones at 51.5 cm, placed 1.5 to 2 m from the piano, augmented by two parallel ribbon spots suspended within the grand, not too close to the hammers, and angled so the vertical 0°-axis is parallel to the lid.
Using two microphones holders that can be carefully clamped to the piano (e.g. K&M's 240/5) saves me from lugging along two extra stands with booms.
In quiet, reverberant environments I will probably also place two omnidirectional microphones farther back and far left and right to have a return on two channels of uncorrelated natural ambience and as an aide in rebalancing the image of the sound stage. A time-delay measurement allows me to align all six tracks in post.
So, what's up with "Miking a Grand Piano"?
The picture on the front page shows a strange sight. There is a nice looking grand in a fantastic hall, but the microphone pair, positioned right at the piano, seems to be aligned rather haphazardously. I assume they are cardioids since they are not mounted in parallel, on the other the hand they are quite far apart and angled sideways only slightly.
The booklet states that it can only provide guidelines, not recipes, but these guidelines should make sense! Talking about positioning an AB pair 1 to 2.5 m from the piano is one thing, showing a picture where the stand is about 30 cm from the lid of the grand is another, and all examples on the SACD are very close miked. Secondly, I don't believe aligning omnidirectional microphones in parallel to the fully open lid does not negate the acoustical influence of the lid.
Next comes ORTF, where the microphone pair is shown positioned as close as makes sense for an XY pair @ +-90°. But considering the much smaller stereophonic recording angle of the former, 96° as opposed to 190°, and the fact that modifying the panning of left and right source from full left & right will induce frequency-dependant phase-irregularities, this location should not be one's first choice.
A few pages later there is mention of an "oversized ORTF-configuration": Two cardioids at a distance of 40 cm and at an angle of 70°. There is no such thing! ORTF is defined as a distance of 17 cm from capsule to capsule and an angle of +-55° from the central axis. Anything else should be described by reference to a different framework, e.g. in the context of Williams' Stereophonic Zoom, according to which the Stereophonic Recording Angle of the above mentioned system would amount to 80°. IMHO this is far too shallow an angle to be located "over or just ahead of the curve of the piano".
And that pretty much sums it up with regards to the needs of the recording engineer.
To be fair, there is brief mention of utilizing a far AB setup "for recordings in large environments with favorable acoustics", which luckily goes for most places in which a grand is featured for a live performance. The positioning suggested is 2-3 m distant and at a height of 3-4 m. There are no samples on the SACD featuring a similar configuration, which is sad since Radio Denmark's concert hall is likely to be a formidable acoustic venue.
So what is missing?
- What does a grand sound like to the audience?
- What are the acoustic effects of the position of the lid?
- In what way does the grand project?
- At what distance should a distant AB pair be positioned relative to the piano?
- What distance should be between the microphones mounted in parallel?
- At what height should the setup be located? I personally stay in the range from between the edge of the grand and the height of the lid.
- What about positioning microphones under the piano? I used an XY pair once to good effect, boundary layer style miking on other occasions.
And on and on…
So, how to mike a grand?
Currently, on many occasions, I use an AB setup with two accurate omnidirectional microphones at 51.5 cm, placed 1.5 to 2 m from the piano, augmented by two parallel ribbon spots suspended within the grand, not too close to the hammers, and angled so the vertical 0°-axis is parallel to the lid.
Using two microphones holders that can be carefully clamped to the piano (e.g. K&M's 240/5) saves me from lugging along two extra stands with booms.
In quiet, reverberant environments I will probably also place two omnidirectional microphones farther back and far left and right to have a return on two channels of uncorrelated natural ambience and as an aide in rebalancing the image of the sound stage. A time-delay measurement allows me to align all six tracks in post.
posted by Andrew Levine at Thursday, May 01, 2008
0 comments
