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Author Topic: Removing the (small) room from the equation  (Read 2388 times)

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Offline voltronic

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Removing the (small) room from the equation
« on: March 14, 2018, 08:50:08 PM »
Usually for the things I'm trying to record, I want to capture the space.  A few weeks ago I had to record some practice accompaniment tracks for some of my wife's private voice students.  What I found after moving into the new house is that my piano can be really loud in my studio, a 11' x 11' room with windows on 3 sides and a ceiling that peaks at 14'.  Also, my piano has a really powerful bass for an upright (Yamaha U1).  I experimented with a few things to try to record the piano in a way that sounded good but removed the room boom, and wanted to share the results.  The pieces are nothing spectacular; just a couple Broadway tunes.  A quick run through iZotope RX to remove some LF rumble that must have been coming from the neighbors.

Gershwin
Sondheim

I took some measurements after I finished.  The Line Audio CM3s were mounted facing straight ahead on a followinbob bar, 60 cm wide, capsules were 116 cm from center of piano and 146 cm high.  As you can see, I set them a bit higher than the top of the piano to avoid some of the direct soundboard resonance.
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Offline lsd2525

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Re: Removing the (small) room from the equation
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2018, 10:57:49 AM »
Nice. That's a serious bar.
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Offline Gutbucket

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Re: Removing the (small) room from the equation
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2018, 11:25:06 AM »
Nice sounding recordings of a quite nice sounding upright.  Good timbral balance, and the room does not overly impose "room smallness" in terms of its acoustic signature in the recording.   

I was going to suggest trying your 4060 boundary mounted to the wall immediately behind you, further minimizing the signature of the room by essentially erasing the bounce off that wall, and providing a player's listening perspective, but based on what I hear from your samples there really isn't any need to do so unless you wanted to try it that for fun.

Congratulations on the new house.
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Offline voltronic

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Re: Removing the (small) room from the equation
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2018, 08:58:16 PM »
Nice sounding recordings of a quite nice sounding upright.  Good timbral balance, and the room does not overly impose "room smallness" in terms of its acoustic signature in the recording.   

I was going to suggest trying your 4060 boundary mounted to the wall immediately behind you, further minimizing the signature of the room by essentially erasing the bounce off that wall, and providing a player's listening perspective, but based on what I hear from your samples there really isn't any need to do so unless you wanted to try it that for fun.

Congratulations on the new house.

Interesting idea.  I don't like listening to player's perspective recordings (which is probably weird since I'm a pianist) but I might try your idea on the opposite wall behind where my mics were set in the picture.  I haven't thought to try omnis in there because there's a pretty significant room mode around 50 Hz, which is nearly the low A-flats you hear throughout the Sondheim, though that piece is quiet enough to not activate it too much.  I've considered some bass traps to clean up the acoustics in there but have found it would take quite an investment to do that properly.
I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.
- Gustav Mahler

Acoustic Recording Techniques
Team Classical
Team Line Audio
Team DPA

 

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