Steinway Pianos in the studio, some times they are too huge

[The Sinner]

I was just a session yesterday and I had a brand new Steinway grand to play. Amazingly beautifully piano. And i know they are the Gibson of the guitar world, but sometimes they do not blend and are out of control in the studio. When you want to play a concerto, project over a full orchestra, or reach the back of the hall with a solo they are perfect. But sometimes the bass growls too much and leaves the pianist without any options of keeping a smooth and not punch tone above mp dynamic. I feel ashamed to say that because I admire them very much and grew up playing them. Sometimes I find Baldwin's to be very nice to record to and sometimes even the yamaha C7 (for pop stuff) because it seems to be a flat piano, doesn't compare to the Steinways lows and up registers.

[David Polich]

I have found that in a pop music track, with a lot of other instruments in the mix (especially electric guitars), you'll spend a lot of time making the piano smaller out of necessity.

Rolling off lows helps (I start at around 160hz and go up from there, sometimes I've rolled off at 280hz). Also, the low-mids can be overbearing, particularly with regards to lead vocals. In that case you also need to carve the low-mids out, find the frequencies where they're clashing with vocal mids and scoop them out to make room for the vocal.

If the track starts out with solo piano, I'll automate the EQ so that it has some more low end when it's all by itself, and then cut the lows when the bass comes in.

Another common misundertanding about pianos is brightness - you might think adding top end gives them more definition - but usually, the brighter you make them, the less realistic they sound. If you have bright guitars and percussion, splashy cymbals and hats, brightening the piano will only make things worse. Pianos actually have a more rounded and full-bodied tone, not spiky like digital piano sounds.

It may seem somewhat blasphemous to have to equalize a piano to make it smaller, as it does have the "king of the keyboards" royalty thing going for it, and somehow it just doesn't seem right that we should have to fix a gorgeous piano in a mix. But we do.

Oh yeah, one more thing - pianos are like guitars, in that they have to be "voiced" to sound good. A good piano tuner/technician will know how to "voice" (set the intonation) so the piano sounds good, and they can also voice the piano to be louder, softer, brighter or darker. Even a brand new Steinway can sound like crap if it hasn't been voiced and tuned by a good technician.

[markwayne]

As someone who is fond of Martin guitars, I often hear the same arguments made when recording acoustic guitars. People want me to use my Taylor without even bothering to hear the Martin. Change the mic, the mic's position and/or EQ and presto the Martin becomes small and glassy.

I agree that the Steinway can be a rich sounding, overtone laden instrument. However, it's easy to subtract some of the richness for the sake of a mix. On the other hand, you won't be able to add richness and overtones back where none exist.

just a thought,
Wayne

[David Polich]

Too true - you can always take out what's there, but you can't add what isn't.