Baby Grand, Closed... with no fancy tools

[rdagit]

Ok, so for the musical I'm doing, I am going to mike a baby grand, with the lid closed, mostly for re-inforcement due to the piano being on stage and should be loud enugh to "hear".... But I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to what to use, especially with it's closed...

I have to use:
SM57's
SM 58's
Audio Technica Pro 45 (chior) - though I may need this for actors later...
Audio Technica ATM10a (omni)
Electro voice RE 15 (cartaroid) - smaller

Normally, the piano has 2-3 SM58's over it, but that is when it is open and underneath the pit, and with it being closed and on stage... I didn't know if anyone had any experience with this sort of situation as it's a little new territory for me...

 

[Eboy87]

Quick and dirty, put one '57 over one of the sound holes inside (listen to each one to see which sounds the best), then put another 57 underneath, almost touching the soundboard. Again, listen to see what sounds best. The large black condenser in this photo is what I mean by sound hole (it's an A-T 4033 in this photo).

 

[rdagit]

Hey, thnx... I would have naturally wanted to put them in the middle... but I like that idea...

 

[LDTom]

When I did piano shows at work( I was the LD, but helped with the stage), we would put 3 mics in the piano and then close it. The three mics were a Shure Beta 91, and SM-57, and another SM-57 inside.

The 91 was gaff taped to the underside of the lid of the piano, and the two 57's were on a piece of 2 inch gaff tape that went across middle of the inside of the piano.

The one thing that was done a lot was trial and error until the sound that was desired was achieved.

From what I have been told by the house sound engineer, the micing that he finally decided on worked very well.

 

[FMEng]

I would try the ATM10 gaff taped to the lid of the piano. It'll behave similarly to a PZM or other boundary mic in that placement. PZM's are well known for micing closed pianos.

Experiment with placement, but I'd start about 2/3 of the way toward the highest strings, and maybe 8 to 10" away from the hammers.

In general, an omni will have smoother, broader frequency response. Inside of a closed piano a directional pattern isn't going to do anything for feedback, either.

 

[Herr_Sprecker]

Depends upon whether the reinforcement is for benefit of the house or just for monitoring. I have a baby grand reinforced strictly for the cast at a moderate level, and I used a Crown PCC under the cover at the opposite end from the hammers. I wouldn't use it if I needed to record or reinforce the piano for benefit of the house, but for this it works to help the cast out.

 

[waynehoskins]

I've used a Shure MX393 (same mike as the Beta 91, just rebranded for their Microflex series) gaff taped to the inside of an upright before, same basic thing. I placed mine on the low third facing the upper third, and it worked pretty good. A bit much 300 from being at the low end; I'd move it closer to the middle and looking at the high strings if I were doing it again. This was a 393/C, so it was cardioid, for what it's worth.

There are also contact transducers, but they're touchy.

On a C5 I'd use a boundary mic of some kind like a 393 or 91 or PCC. They've all impressed me in various circumstances

 

[DavidDaMonkey]

I have used a large diaphragm mic underneath a piano before, and it really sounded nice. This, however, was in a studio setting, and was not the only mic. If you do go this route, its not going to be very crisp, but it can help beef up the sound.