just to relate a recent experience doing a piano and flute duo
performing classical material.

the piano is a 7'4" bosendorfer in the pianist's living room, so i had
to track it on site. i used a spaced pair of DPA 4011s just outside the
curve. the flute was recorded in my studio using a spaced pair of DPA
4006s and an ORTF pair of AKG c481s. all through millennia media HV3
pres.

i started by mixing the piano as a hard LR panned image, which gives
you the 50' wide piano effect, low end on the left and high on the
right, with a slight hole in the middle for the flute. i reversed the
reverb returns to give some high end on the left and some bottom on the
right. i gave the piano a slight smile EQ to also make a place for the
flute to sit. i rahter tightly panned the flute tracks at maybe
10:30-1:30 or so.

the whole thing sounded mushy to me, flute wasnt localized enough, and
the piano sounded ridiculous to me spread out so far (even though most
of the piano/XXX duo CDs i have display this kind of wide panning for
the piano). i tried everything i knew with various stereo effects
reducing the panned piano image to a more naroow space (which made it
conflict with the flute, of course), blah, blah, etc. finally, i got so
frustrated, i pulled all the faders down except for one of the piano
mics, and one of the flute mics, gave them each a bit of a nice stereo
reverb, panned the flute just left of center, and the piano just roght
of center, and BINGO - all of a sudden the whole mix took on a new life
- both instruments have a defined place in the stereo image, while the
stereo reverb gives a natrual sounding width to both instruments.

i guess i relay all this because in the past, i have never even
considered micing a piano in mono, and virtually always have tracked
solo instruments like flutes in stereo. duh, duh, and duh...




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jnorman
sunridge studios
salem, oregon