Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 6

**David French** · 05-21-2006 12:22 PM

Hi guys, miss me?

So I hadn't done any recording in a while, but last night I recorded a talented young lady playing a concert of some difficult material. Hoping to build on my previous experiences, I took that approach and modified it per Spearritt's suggestions.

Excerpt from Vivace of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 6

I used a pair of R-122 in Blumlein 8' from the piano and 4' high and a pair of CMC62 in AB spaced 2.5' apart, 7' from the piano, and 7' high. In retrospect this may have been too close (you tell me), but I had no soundcheck this time, so oh well. The Royers were mixed in at about -4dB relative to the Schoeps.

I liked the tone I had on the last recording, aside from being a little bottom heavy, but it had no image definition. This one has more image and I think better tone, but I'm still not thrilled. Any suggestions for building on this next time?

**DavidSpearritt** · 05-21-2006 01:28 PM

Both pairs are far too close. What were you monitoring on, this should have been detected at record time. Assuming its a 9ft grand, we would put the main pr 3-4m or so away and 2.8m in the air, and the outriggers would be 4m apart and some 4m in the air.

Do you have access to some convolution reverb. A little bit of a fine hall added to this recording will improve it a lot.

The room is not good though, this is probably the most important thing to fix or at least compensate for. Tone and image are getting much better though, when compared to your first recording.

Keep at it. I think your next recording will be a beauty.

**DavidSpearritt** · 05-21-2006 01:44 PM

Its a bit dull sounding also, what preamp was used for the ribbons. I sometimes use some high EQ to spark them up a bit, depending on the instrument, room and music being played. Prokofiev needs articulation and clarity, so in this case I would add some EQ to the ribbons only, not the Schoeps.

**David French** · 05-21-2006 02:11 PM

Thanks a bunch for the advice.

I didn't have a soundcheck, so I had to go with what I set up. I can't wait 'till next time! :twisted:

I do have Waves IR-1, and I have experimented with adding a bit, but chose to leave it off here for evaluation purposes. I also experimented with high end EQ, but again chose to leave it off.

I used the board pres in a Yamaha DM2000.

Any chance I could send you a multitrack snippet so I could see how you would treat this?

**DavidSpearritt** · 05-22-2006 02:32 AM

No problem.

**larsfarm** · 05-22-2006 05:04 AM

Originally Posted by DavidSpearritt

Both pairs are far too close. ... Its a bit dull sounding also

This seems a contradiction. What am I missing? Please elaborate.

best regards
Lars

**David French** · 05-22-2006 08:42 AM

Larsfarm, piano mics can definitely be both close an dull. Up high, a piano is not nearly as bright as you might think.

David, thanks. I will put something together for you soon. I'll post it publicly so others can play as well.

**David French** · 05-22-2006 01:41 PM

Here's the multitrack snippet:

Snippet of multitrack from Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 6
[self-extracting RAR archive: 30.9 MB]

So please, David, show me how you would handle this. Thank you so much for doing this for me. I really appreciate your advice.

David and anyone else, after you listen to the pairs alone, I'd love to hear opinions on what I should be looking to get from each pair, and how far off I am.

Thanks guys, this is a great learning opportunity.

**larsfarm** · 05-22-2006 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by David French

piano mics can definitely be both close an dull.

I'm listening and have a lot to learn. Hence the questions. I encounter piano now and then. Grands as well as uprights. Mostly accompaniment, but I still wish to catch them nicely. Occasionally as a solo instrument.

Lars

**larsfarm** · 05-22-2006 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by David French

[self-extracting RAR archive: 30.9 MB

Uhmmm, is RAR really suitable for audio compression? How much did it compress? perhaps one of the lossless compressions flac or apple lossless that reduces to about half would be better? or (dare I propose it) high bitrate mp3? ( BTW exe will not run on Macintoshes )

best regards
Lars

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