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Hello everyone,
found this beautiful forum (and neverending source of knowledge) thanks to a friend of mine.
Time has come for me to start buying mics for my home-studio set up.
I have an acoustic piano I'd love to record in a decent way, and also a classical guitar (and I'm going to buy a mandolin too... eheheheh).
I was thinking about a pair (in order to being able to make stereo recordings) of this AKG model which is the C4000B...
do you think it's a good choice in general (as a starting level), and what do you think about a couple of them recording a piano (vertical, not coda). I would plug those two mic in a MOTU 896 MKIII sound board.

links:

AKG C4000B - [="http://www.AKG.com/site/products/powerslave,id,219,nodeid,2,_langauge,EN.html"]C 4000 B[/]="http://www.AKG.com/…"]C 4000 B[/]
MOTU 896 MKIII - [[url=http://="http://www.motu.com… MOTU.com - 896mk3 Overview[/]="http://www.motu.com… MOTU.com - 896mk3 Overview[/]

Thanks a lot in advance
Best Regards

Stefano

Comments

Boswell Wed, 12/15/2010 - 09:42

Does "vertical" mean "upright", and why would you leave out the coda if it's there in the score?

I don't think you would be very happy with the results from C4000Bs on a piano, especially in an untreated room. You would do better going in closer using a pair of small diaphragm condensers (SDCs) than a pair of large diaphragm condensers (LDCs) at a greater distance. In the medium price bracket, a pair of Rode NT55s is hard to beat for this type of work. I've used them quite a bit on piano, both with the cardioid capsules fitted closed paired and also with the omni capsules in a spaced-pair configuration.

SDCs are also generally considered better for instruments like acoustic guitar and mandolin, although I have had excellent results from LDCs in M-S mode on solo acoustic guitar, but only in a studio with good acoustics.

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.soundons…"]Here's[/]="http://www.soundons…"]Here's[/] an article on piano miking. It includes reference to using NT55s, and also there's a paragraph on miking an upright piano.