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AW: Looping (what else!) questions..Human Prepared Piano!
Hi Alex,
using two identical mics will not minimize what I here
called crosstalk (yes, I was referring to pickup of the sound from the
P.A.).
The way PZMs work is they do not pickup the sound that is
"in the air", rather they pick up the sound incident on an interface between two
media. Putting them on the lid will also make them pick up much of the sound
coming from the P.A. (but as Andy already pointed out, with non-rock-music
playback levels, this may not be that much of a problem), while putting
them onto the soundboard will reduce that effect. And most of the PZMs available
are omnis (or rather half-omnis), meaning the reproduction of very low
frequencies is better most of the time (which may not be an issue, simply
because I doubt that a typical P.A. will reproduce 20 or even 40 Hz properly).
Btw, I have been using SM57s once one a grand piano, which
will give a very "rock piano"-ish sound. Perhaps you should simpy try the
microphones you have in different configurations on the baby grands (performing
your material) and see how you like it.
Best,
Rainer
Hey all, thanks for the responses, much appreciated :)
Rainer-
With using the two identical mics, how does that
minimize crosstalk? (Which I assume is referring to the pickup of the sound
that is playing back?)
As for picking up the fundamentals, I guess I'll
just have to try different things and see how they sound..
The PZMs- do
you mean literally ON the soundboard under the strings? The only reference I
can find on the web to using PZMs is placing one or two on the open lid (which
makes sense and seems like it might work.) I'm not sure if anyone I know has
some, but I can try.
Andy- 100-200 in US dollars, sorry! And yes I
wouldn't need to amplify the actual playing, just the recorded loops...so I
will certainly try placing the condenser in a few spots...the only problem is
I can't have access to the full grand until the performance!! Maybe once...but
I can play around on the baby grands in the practice
rooms.
Thanks,
Alex
On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 5:33 AM, Rainer Thelonius
Balthasar Straschill <
rs@moinlabs.de> wrote:
Hi
Alex,
whow, you got yourself into a challenging situation
here...
Concert grands have a range which produces fundamentals from
16-something up to more than 4000 Hz. So generally, these low
frequencies will be a problem for your P.A., your microphone and possibly
your audio interface as well. So I sure hope your composition can live
without the fundamentals of the lower one and a half octaves being properly
reproduced...
Any microphony which is meant to minimize crosstalk from
the P.A. will consist of (at least) two (identical) microphones. The general
approaches I'm aware of which also have good properties regarding minimized
crosstalk include:
* two microphones
below the soundboard (one on the left, one on the right)
* two microphones above the soundboard.
In direct
comparison, the "below" approach tends to have a more "round" sound. The
huge disadvantage for your application is that you loose any detail of
percussive effects happening inside the piano (e.g. the transients of
somebody plucking a string or something), and I believe that these are an
important part of your composition.
With the mics from above, a problem
in your case is that they might get in the way of the performer when she's
playing inside the piano.
Generally, I wouldn't see a good way to do this
with the microphones at your disposal. Do you see a chance that you could
borrow a pair of half-omni PZMs to be placed on top of the piano's
soundboard? With that, you don't have the problem that they get in the way
of the performer too much, pickup of sound from the P.A. is minimized, and
as they are (half-)omnis, low-end reproduction is usually far better
compared to cardioids and the like.
I hope you will be recording the
performance (another tricky part...)
Best,
Rainer
----- original Nachricht
--------
Betreff: Looping (what else!) questions..Human Prepared
Piano!
Gesendet: Do, 21. Feb 2008
Von: Alex Graham
Hey all-
I'm currently working on a piece that I hope to
have performed at a student composition concert at my
University-
--- original Nachricht Ende
----