So I recorded some upright piano for the first time...

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windsurfer25x
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2010/02/22 19:21:26 (permalink)

So I recorded some upright piano for the first time...

So I recorded some upright piano for the first time at our church for some backing tracks when we don't have a piano player in attendance (our piano player's day job is such that he is not always present)

Anyways I recorded some acoustic upright piano with my two new AT 4021's... great sound and all.
I did a little bit of processing with some compression and EQ from T-Racks 3 plugins... from our previous recording at the church.

At the end of the session we went onto the mixer to hear what it sounded like on the church's main speaker system... the recordings all sounded fine but I tried one of the ones that I had EQ'd and compressed a little bit and there was this faint distortion that I found slightly unpleasant. It wasn't pronounced or anything, but it sounded like the piano sound was coming out of a speaker enclosed in a tin can made of thin metal. 
I disabled the plugins and the annoying sound went away.

So am I right to conclude that when recording acoustic instruments, you want to use minimal if any audio processing at all? Does using audio processing always distort the sound unpleasantly like that on acoustic instruments?


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    gamblerschoice
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    Re:So I recorded some upright piano for the first time... 2010/02/23 00:15:08 (permalink)
    When recording the tracks, it has been my experience that recording should be done with no effects, including compression and eq. I found that setting the mics up as best as possible, and that depends on each individual situation, room, instrument and musician, and getting the signal into the computer at the best possible volume level, which is not to say the hottest signal, but the optimum level for full dynamic range without coming even close to a clip, is the best approach.

    Once you have a good signal recorded, you can do anything at all with it in the processing, but you can never go back and re-capture that performance in its entirety. Concentrate on the best raw, unprocessed signal, and modify in the box later.

    Later
    Albert

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    windsurfer25x
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    Re:So I recorded some upright piano for the first time... 2010/02/23 08:27:13 (permalink)
    Sorry if I misrepresented myself. That is what I did, I was recording clean in, the effects I put on were after the recording, and after I realized what they introduced I took them off


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    The Maillard Reaction
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    Re:So I recorded some upright piano for the first time... 2010/02/23 08:42:32 (permalink)
    You did good.

    You listened and you made a choice.

    Now you will know to look for the distortion buried deep in the clean tracks... maybe there is something you can do to improve that... or perhaps the *distortion* is happening acoustically on the sound board of the upright piano and is only evident after the processing.

    You are heading a good direction by listening carefully.

    best,
    mike


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