Seems like since his recording system is fairly portable, it wouldn't
be too hard to find a piano in a good hall that could be rented for a
few hours.

Al

On 29 Sep 2004 17:40:45 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Dan wrote:
Hi,
I need some help. I'm recording myself on a grand playing classical music.
I have a Lavry Blue A/D to a computer, and a pair of Coles 4040 mics which
I'm using in Blumlein configuration. The room is 13x24x9, with the piano
against one of the short walls, and the walls have eye level wood paneling
with a lath/plaster ceiling and wood floors. The preamp is presently a
crummy 'Audiobuddy' (really bad), as I finish my custom designed and
built tube based preamp.

That room is _tiny_. Especially for a Blumlein pair, which has a very
narrow angle of acceptance. You need to get those mikes MUCH farther
back than that room will allow.

The problem is that what I get really sounds bad, more so than warrented
by the crummy preamp. A couple of Cardoids pointed at the piano sounds OK,
but spacing the Blumlein pair about 8 feet way sounds bad. It gets mushy,
some notes boom out, and other things.

Yes. Try pulling the Blumlein back about thirty or forty feet in a bigger
room. Maybe fifty or sixty feet.

Obviously the room is having an effect, but I've tried putting up a blanket
behind or to the sides of mic, to damp the room out, but it didn't seem to
make too much difference. Moving the mics around doesn't seem to make a
tremendous difference either.

That only damps very high frequencies, which if anything probably makes the
problem worse. And it doesn't do anything about the fact that you are just
way too close for a Blumlein pair, or the fact that you have some major
standing wave problems in that room.

Any suggestions on a good way to either improve the room, or better mic
positions, or something else? Most suggestions I've gotten so far have
been for close micing, but that's more appropriate for rock I believe.

I think if you are stuck using that room, close miking might be the only
way to go. Have someone else play scales on the piano while you go around
the room with a finger in one ear, listening with the other. I bet it sounds
really boomy in most places in the room too.

You need a better room.
--scott