Classical recordings and gain levels

[FRIAS]

Hello,

I need your help one time more.

I have recorded some pieces for voice and piano at the conservatory of music of Córdoba with the next equipment:

*Stenway & Sons Gand Piano----(Mic used: two AKG C3000)
*For the voice I've used another AKG C3000
*PowerBook G4 17'
*Motu 896
*La Cie 250 Gb/7200 rpm/8 Mb buffer

My problem is I don't know what's the right position of the microphones because if I put them near the voice and piano when the music gets strong the levels clip in 896. But if put the mics far (a little bit) the sound is not clear.
What can I do? I want the recording sounds with a good level but don't overdub the 896 meters.

Thank you.

[sdemott]

Typically you want to back off and just use a stereo room pair for classical recording.

You could use 2 of the C3000s in one of the following setups:

ORTF - about 7" apart and each off axis 55 degs. for an included angle of 110 degrees.

XY - one capsule above the other creating a 90 deg. angle.

AB - if they can be put into omni mode, space 2 or all three in a straight line.

It is more common to use small diaphragm condensers for classical recording, but the C3000s should be fine. The trick is getting them far enough back to get a good mix of direct sound and some room ambience. Too far back and you get the "recorded at the bottom of a well" sound and too far forward and the balance is all off annd way too present.

My personal favorite for classical recording (which accounts for about 90% of my work) is an ORTF pair just behnd the conductor (or where he would stand) and then 2 flanked omnis set farther back for more ambience. Of course, you sometimes need a spot mic or 2, but if the performers are good they will have worked out all the balance level issue in their performance and you'll just need to set the mics, set the levels, hit record and enjoy the music.

Oh, BTW, I alway leave a good amount of headroom when setting levels. about 8-12 dB on the meters. Performers always push a little more in front of the audience and if you set your levels too close to clipping you will run into problems.

HTH

[FRIAS]

Thank you very much for your reply. All the things that you wrote me are very useful for my recordings.

[sholland]

I guess you figured out that 7" is what we call about 17cm in the civilized world.

[donreynolds]

If I were doing it, I would try to decide how I wanted the piano to be percieved to the audience that will be listening to it on the recording. Live Classical music recordings are notorious for poor audio. Many classical guitarists sound like they have been recorded through a cheap tape machine.
I would hit it from 4 mic positions: two condensers placed near the bass and treble strings respectively angling towards the mid register (watch for cancellation/ phase differences). Then place a large diaphram back about10 to fifteen feet away from the open top for room ambiance, then place the the fourth I would place directly behind the pianist's head slightly directing toward the open top to pick up what the pianist is hearing.
then you can mix the four mics to achieve what I believe will be the ultimate blend of true piano sound, picking up the string attack for crispness, room sound for the live feel, and the sound that the pianist is heaing also. It is a litle more trouble but it gives you much more control over your sound depth and quality. have the pianist play the piano as hard as he would in concert and set the trims for gain just under peaking for the best signal to noise ratio.
Hope this helps

[donreynolds]

Oh yeah... for the voice, you might use a gate plugin to clean up the voice track. set a quick attack and release. thats about all you can do in a live situation to keep the instrument out of the vocal mix.
also, with the condensers that will be used near the strings... You will be able to use a hi-pass and low-pass filters and equalize them accordingly to balance out the piano tone