EQ a digital piano

Hi,

anybody got some good tips on eq for a diguital piano in a live and in a recording situation? The pisno is actually coming from a sampler and is quite a nice sound. I've been told to roll off below about 120 hz and add a little boost around 10khz. However I'm not sure if this is a general setting and I'm not sure of the levels of gain and attenuation as well as the q shape.

Any ideas?

Ta,

Alex.

 

I can offer you a little advice, but really what I do depends on the piano sound I'm dealing with. I've got a good acoustic piano sound sample, and I've got an E-mu PK-6 with a pretty bad acoustic piano sound.

For live shows, I try and pull a lot of lows and low mids out of the sound.. like around 60-75hz and 175-250hz. No sense in cluttering up the PA with mud. With the sampler, I'll add a little high mids and/or highs around 1.6-2.3k and 4-7k for definition. With the E-mu, if you add highs it starts get tinny and sounds real fake, so I just try and keep it punchy instead of bright.

For recording, it all comes down to where the piano sits in the mix. I never use the E-mu because my samples are so much better. I think my samples sound hollow in a recording, so I try and fatten them up. Sometimes I'll throw it through the Antares Mic Modeler and see if I find anything that sounds a little more realistic. But EQ wise I'll end up adding a little around 700-800z to make it sound a little less hollow.

Basically, if you've got great samples, just use your ears for your mixes and take frequencies away before you add. If your samples are not so great, like mine, you might need to do a little extra EQ work, or throw a compressor on it. Your mileage may vary!

 

ive had bad experiences throwing compressors on pianos. they always make some notes stand out more and others fade in the mix. i would give you EQ tips, but my piano sounds are used mostly for happy hardcore or industrial, and i shape them very oddly to match the feel of the song. plus, the point of them is usually to sound fake anyway.

 

Really depends on what kind of piano you are trying to emulate, in what circumstances, in what kind of room, etc...whatever the device is, though, I usually gently roll off things above 8-10K....

Strangly enough, sometimes the best EQ for a digital piano is accomplished with reverbs and pre-delays...