Recording Piano with limited mics

[MrNutbeard]

Hello peeps
I have a question for you:
How would you position your mics if you only had one Sure Sm57 and a Sennheiser e906 available for recording an upright piano?
I wanna record some piano, but that's all the mics I have now.

 

[lakefx]

I would either use the 906 pointed at the lower frequency side and the 57 at the higher or use them both in an xy or mid side configuration as room mics.

 

[kbr]

I would walk around until I found the spot in the room where the piano sounded the best and put a 57 there.

Then I would go on online and get a pair of used M-Audio Pulsar II's (or any cheap small diaphragm condensers) for $50. They will go a long way towards you getting good recordings. Close mic the piano with the condensers (open lid, closed lid, under the piano, near to the hammers, spaced pair, xy, go wild!) and put out the 57 as a room mic. You'll be surprised at how good (or at least cool) things sound for cheap.

 

[EastCoastThump]

Depends *why* I was recording. If just to flesh out some demos or to explore the sounds I could get, I'd use the mics at hand. Of the two dynamics you have, I'd lean more on the Sennheiser for the bulk of the detailed sound. The e906 is a more honest mic (especially switched in high-cut position), while the 57 adds more of its pretty distinctive mid-humped color. If this is the case, take what you have and start listening really closely to what happens when you change mic positions.

If, OTOH, I wanted to record piano for something the public would hear, I'd look into renting mics, pres, a nice instrument, and a good sounding space.

 

[ofajen]

I'd start with one of them pointing toward the center of the soundboard from about 12-18 inches behind the piano. I've had success that way in getting a nice basic representation of the piano tone without distracting key and hammer noises. With two similar mikes, I'd try a similar placement, spacing them on either side of that center point.

Otto