happy cake day @monochromios
2 Likes
Happy cake day my friend. Your advice, from music to cats, is always appreciated.
2 Likes
Fun ranking of audiophile terms by @Resolve . Do you agree with them? Disagree? Does it really matter at the end of the day? Check out the end of the video to find out.
(Personally all treble related terms are F tier)
7 Likes
@Resolve Can I get that in a spider chart
1 Like
I have a a question about piano recordings. I notice that high and low notes tend to play on separate channels on my SR1a. For instance, the recent “On DSCH” CD of Shostakovich preludes, I hear high notes to the left and low notes to the right (which is usually the spatial orientation I hear for the piano). I thought it might be my hearing, but the output meters confirm this imbalance.
I presume this has something to do with how the strings resonate or how sounds travels, but not really sure what is going on. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
1 Like
Wild guess here - could it have something to do with the mic placement during the recording?
1 Like
I’m guessing, given that this happens on many piano recordings, that the mic is placed in the center and that the left-right spatiality has something to do with with the way low vs high notes travel, but I really can’t figure it out. I’m guessing a piano is normally situated with the keyboard on the left and the mic centered–the layout for most piano performances. But maybe it is standard to record the piano with the keys furthest away from the mic to prevent recording the sound of the keys. This might create the left-right difference I’m talking about.
1 Like
Happy Cake Day @adornoWest. Have a good day.
2 Likes
You’re totally right.
During recordings of pieces that show a central role for the piano usually are used two microphones and given the need to uniform the recordings the two channels end up being separated.
You can ear something similar on jazz recordings from the '50 where you have the piano on the left and bass on right: bass piano notes often end on right channel in order to have a uniform treatment of the lower frequencies given the RIIA equalisation.
With a two channel system you will hardly note it while on headphones it can be quite unpleasant.
2 Likes
Maybe it has something to do with the actual playing then recording the hands, ex : Always right hand (treble) on the left and bass (left hand) on the right for classical music and how the recording engineer handles the mic(s) placements and lid tilt…
If the piano is closed miced, with one mic covering the bass and the other one the treble, I think that is what we hear with headphones more so than an audience would or even a 2 chl system with speakers. But I’ve seen them use 4 to 5 mics and they were all spaced differently and adjusted to take advantage of the lid tilt and the space the piano is in for a grand type of piano. Just my WILD guess.
4 Likes
@adornoWest - just looked up that album (on Qobuz) - side note to the conversation here — what a cool cover it has.
1 Like
I don’t quite follow you, @monochromios. Can you explain?
I know nothing about micing, @cpp. Why would a piano need more than one mic, let alone four or five?
It happens very often that when a mixing engineer has to mix the recording material he has to separate the lower end notes of a piano from the mid high notes.
Since two microphones are used to record a piano very often the way to properly give the listener the full range spectrum of the piano is to separate the two levels of notes.
You end up having mid highs on the left and lower notes on the right channel.
This happens more frequently if a vinyl release of the recordings is supposed to be released: in order to make the music printable on vinyl an equalisation called “RIIA” is applied. Basically it cuts the lower end notes and amplifies the highs.
When a vinyl is played back the preamp is set considering the “RIIA” equalisation by the manufacturer so the highs are lowered and basses are highly amplified.
This solution comes from the fact that if lower notes were recorded on vinyl “as they are” the stylus
3 Likes
Because of the need to separate in the recording the lower and higher register and (for recent recordings) in order to give a better sense of three dimensionality.
3 Likes
Thanks for the help!
Forgive the dumb questions, but if they aren’t going vinyl, why do they need to separate the two levels and map them to different channels? Why can’t they keep them centered (or nearly so) and still maintain the full spectrum? How does it help create better 3D?
The procedure is based on the so called “market preferences”: the separation of the two sonore bands ensures a more detailed recording and a reproduction with a better sense of stage and liveliness. For classical and jazz recordings it is was the market “wants”.
Consider also that the wast majority of recording engeneers learned their job recording for vinyl pressing and habits are hard to overcome.
2 Likes
This parallels your earlier questions about cello recording differences from left to right, and it has a similar explanation. Microphone type and placement is a MAJOR topic of recording techniques. Studios can choose close mics (e.g., a few inches), mid distance, overhead, and or distant room mics. These emphasize different aspects of the generated sounds, pick up on echoes, and they are layered (blended) to generate a fuller or distinct timbre. Mics also use different driver technologies (e.g., dynamic, ribbon, condenser, etc.) that affect what is recorded mirror playback drivers (e.g., speakers and headphones).
When you play a recording you are hearing the source + mics + analog media or ADC + mixing choices and studio modifications + playback amp and DAC + playback speaker/headphone driver.
Check out this acoustic guitar recording method comparison:
Check out this drum recording method comparison (e.g., demos around 3:00):
5 Likes
A really good read on why multiple mics are used for a piano. Piano Recording
Its a really good read on measures taken to record a piano.
2 Likes
