Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. I have read quite a bit but want to keep it simple. I'm looking to purchase a pair of mics to record my upright piano in my living room. The living room has a fairly low ceiling and doesn't sound great, but ok. A engineer friend of mine suggested a pair of Neumann KM 184's. After some reading I feel like these might be too bright/harsh? I've also been suggested AKG C414's. And just now started looking at Schoeps CMC-64's which I'm interested in. DPA 4011's have also come up. I want a detailed solo piano sound. I want to achieve this as simply as possible - I'm technically not very proficient! I guess I will take the front of the piano off and close mic.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also if anyone has suggestions of good preamps that would fit this situation. And audio interface.
My budget for mics would be £1-2000. Same for preamp £1-2000.

Thank you.

I'm totally new to recording!
Soon I'd like to set up a youtube channel doing covers of songs on piano, electric and acoustic guitar.
A few months ago I bought a Shure Sm57 cheaply off Amazon, at first it didn't work so my dad unscrewed it and the wires weren't soldered. He soldered them, but when I used it to record my upright piano, even when I put it right next to the soundboard it was extremely low output.
I had it plugged into my old dell laptop running Audacity, and by the time I had amplified it enough there was an awful lot of hum.
Was it likely that this was a fake?
Now, I want to get another mic for recording my upright piano, I've done a bit of research and it seems that condensers seem to be best for this sort of thing, what model(s) do you suggest? £100 is my budget but I could maybe go slightly over if I'm going to get a much higher quality one.
Also, do I need an audio interface? With my Sm57 I plugged straight into my computer's 3.5mm jack socket.
Also, this might be a really stupid question, but obviously condenser mics need phantom power, can you get an audio interface with phantom power?
Thanks very much in advance for all your help.

Instrument: Yamaha upright

Here is the space, a large classroom:20' x 40' long, 12' high.
Tile Floors, Brick Walls, Drop Ceiling, Sound Panels up high

Microphone Options:

• 2 RODE NT5 - sdc
• 1 RODE NTA1 - ldc
• 2 SM57 - dyn
• 1 SM58 - dyn
• 1 Beta52 - dyn

Style: Indie/Classic Rock kind of sounds. The piano would be the main rhythm instrument.

Questions:

Where do I set up the piano?
What mics should I use?
Where should I place the mics?

Thoughts:

My first guess would be to use the sdc's in a stereo pair somewhere close. And perhaps the ldc somewhere in the room where it sounds cool. Maybe just put the piano in the center of the room. Being in a school, I have access to giant gym mats, which work very well as sound baffles. Possibly I can put them in a position to where they block the flat wall reflections.

Thanks for any help!

I've been asked by a friend to record him for a college audition. He plays the upright bass, but also needs me to record piano and acoustic guitar.

My question is what microphone would be best for these instruments?

I have a Shure SM57...would that be sufficient? If yes, for which instrument or all of the instruments? If not, what mic would be best?

I am currently recording on my pc laptop with an mbox 2, using pro tools le 7.4

Thanks!

Anyone have any suggestions for recording an upright piano? It seems that there is a ton about recording grands, but not very much for uprights. My parents own a Huntington Piano Co that they have kept in tune for as long as I can remember. I'm borrowing a pair of NT5 and I thought I'd test them out on it. Has anyone had any luck with certain mic placements?
Thanks

Dear Engineers,

We are trying to record our jazz trio inside a small ..13'x19'x9' room.

looking at everything from the front, it's just like a 13x19 stage and if you are on the audience side looking at the stage, here how we are set up in the room:

Grand Piano on the left , Drums in the center, Upright Bass on the right

so...
the Grand Piano it's on the 13' left wall opening toward the long way of the room and musicians.
the Drum set it's in the center of the room near the 19' wall facing the short way of the room,
the Upright Bass it's near the right 13' wall

We are very close to each other..and we like when our drummer can play at full volume with good dynamic.

We have enough mics... but we end up using only two condensers "omni" for now...one for the Bass and one for the Piano,
No mics for the drums, there is already enough drums in the mix from piano and bass mics.

The more mics we use, the more problems we get.., and close Micing with condensers doesn't work very good either. .

We are thinking about buying pickups for Grand piano and Upright Bass and go direct.
or
Buying amplification for the Grand Piano and Upright Bass.
or
keep experimenting just with 2 or 3 condensers and stereo mic techniques, without amplification, moving mics and instruments around the room.
or
Experimenting with dynamic hyper cardioid mics only...
etc. etc
but we don't have much experience in engineering and we need some help..
Are we going to make it?
Which will be the best approach for recording a Jazz Trio in a small room like this?

P.S.
We have:
3 condenser omni measurement mics
3 small condenser hyper-cardioid mics
11 cardioid large condenser mics,
4 cardioid small condenser mics
5 cardioid dynamic mics
4 hyper-cardioid dynamic mics
we record with delta 1010 24/96, Pro Tools, we have PreSonus m80 preamp, compressors, a Behringer console.

Thanks

I'm not a piano player but wish I would have learned more than the guitar some days. I'm in the market for an upright piano now. Can I find something good in the price range of 3500.00? What brand or model do you recommend. New or used isn't a concern. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

how should I record my upright piano? what kind of stereo effects can I use?

mics for use:
AKG 414
Bluebird
Groove Tubes GT44 matched pair
a couple 57s

Hey Guys. I recently moved an upright piano into my home studio. The room is about 17' x 20', but it's carpeted, has tile recessed ceilings, and there's a crap load of other musical toys cluttering the area. I have two MXL 603s that I wanted to use to record the piano, but have never explored this instrument in the studio world. If anyone could give their two cents on mic positioning, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have a 1968 Sohner upright piano in pretty good shape. I am doing some recording with it and I have to mic the piano, something I have never done before. I have two MXL MXLV63M mics and one Shure SM58, recording into PT with the Digi002.

I am in a home - basement (carpeted), paneled walls & stucco ceiling with typical furniture. I have soundproofing that I am going to put up all around to deaden the room as much as possible.

Can anyone recommend a good mic configuration? I am thinking one behind the piano and possibly opening up the top. What about distance? How far should they be from the piano?

I know that a lot of it is trial and error, but I wanted to start with a good setup and some expert advice and tweak it from there.

Thanks,
Eric