Topic: Recording Harmonium and Piano-problems

[carpa]

I recently recorded a short video clip Mozart piece with an Harmonium-celesta Mustel  (1897) and an Erard Grand Piano ( 1847). My collegue Claudio Brizi plays the Harmonium and I'm playing the piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lGgTitxHyY

The audio was recorded with a couple of Naiant x-x's  placed about  3 mt from the instrument, spaced about 50 cm., running an apogee duet soundcard into a macbook pro with Logic software.

During the recording of another more dynamic arrangement ( Beethoven V simphony) he had to interrupt work because of distortion. I don't think it's something regarding the preamp stage on the Apogee, as the screen on Logic showed the input level was safely low. 

Probably we overloaded the mics, which hold a maximum 126 db. 

What I'd like to know is how much difference I will find if I buy a couple of mics which can accept something like 130/132 db like Lineaudio cm3 or om1.  Is it a slight difference or this could solve the problems?

My collegue has a couple of Neuman U67, which he couldn't use this time due to a cable problem and which we used during a previous tour.

Here's another clip we recorded with the Neumann. This piece is not dinamically demanding, but we recorded also very loud pieces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPrEvF9YGY4

I know that Neumanss are another quality...my question is only about  overloading problems in terms of db.

thanks

[bombdiggity]

Which instrument was distorting (or was it both)? 

I would be surprised this sort of performance would hit levels where mics would overload. 

Seems more like the preamp would be up too far.  The dynamics of piano can be tricky at close distance (though 3 meters is not that close). 

It would be useful to have a dB meter at hand if this is an issue.  There may be an app for phones that can do that, though a meter is pretty inexpensive.  That would provide data to narrow things down. 

A 6 dB difference is not that great (though could be important of you're right at that limit). 

I don't really think I've ever had a decent mic overload from the dB level (even at some quite loud rock shows).  I did have an internal pre slightly oversaturate the first or second time I used a recorder since it wasn't clear to me how I needed to run things on the R-44. 

Someone has noted elsewhere that the Naiant omnis have a pretty low threshold (though sound good if things stay in range). 

[carpa]

I think Harmonium distorted more than piano... apart from this I can confirm the Naiants sound very good if not in the "limit zone".

I don't think the distortion we reported was related to the Apogee preamp because we were very far from 0 db.  Other recordings were made with a Sony stereo single point ecm 999 in the same position as the Naiants with a wider peak shown in the Logic window on the pc, with no distortion.  Then, I don't like the sound of Sony so much, but this is another matter

[carpa]

Thanks for the advice. Do you mean cutting high frequencies in recording or in post? If you listen to the clip, there's no high cut and I'm afraid we would risk a dull sound by adding the cut. By the way, in this Mozart we didn't have any clipping. The problem came with  more dynamic Liszt and Beethoven pieces, and it's strange because I don't believe either that sound pressure could exceed 126 db ( mics were at 3 mt. from the instrument, just about the first row of seats in the hall); the recording level had been set quite conservative and I don't think we overloaded the Apogee mic input...
thanks for any advice
c

[F.O.Bean]

I have always wanted to record in local churches and the like. Just never had the opportunity. My mk4s would sound KILLER micing a piano or organ. Maybe someday ill get a chance

[carpa]

No, we stopped recording in this configuration because of clipping.