Help with piano recording

selks

I am trying to decide if the way I am recording my piano is producing a true sound. I would be very grateful for any feedback on what sort of piano you think I'm playing.

Please no need for comment on my lack of technical ability🙂. I can hear the faults!

I'm also not sure if this sharing method will work. I'm sharing below a link to the .wav file on Google Drive. It plays ok for me on IOS and MacOS. Compressing it to mp3 seemed to affect the quality considerably.

CyberGene

selks I miss some reverb. Sounds rather dry and especially the bass seems to disappear too abruptly when released which makes it revealing it’s a digital piano. However I can only listen to the speakers of my iPhone currently, so I can’t say more about the sound from the crappy speaker. There’s some plinkiness to the sound but I’m not sure if it’s from the actual piano or the iPhone speakers. Might be a Casio digital or Pianoteq.

selks

CyberGene Many thanks. I won't say more until I've hopefully seen a few more responses.

QuasiUnaFantasia

Sounds to me like a Kawai digital piano. The sound in itself is quite pleasing, but also quite synthetic. Nice playing, by the way!

CyberGene

I got my AirPods Pro. Well, I said it could be either a Casio digital or Pianoteq but now I’m leaning towards Pianoteq. The resonance sound is nice which is where Pianoteq shines. But the plinky attack is there and spoils it. I’d be surprised if I’m wrong 😀

navindra

CyberGene Personally I don't think this is Pianoteq at all, but I'm often wrong about these things and you tend to be right much more often. I expect more from Pianoteq in terms of resonance/aliveness. 😃

Kawai digital seems like the next best guess to me.

navindra

It sounds layered or morphed.

selks

navindra no it's my clumsy playing of the chords.

Ralphiano

I don't hear much timbre change with the dynamic changes.

So, if this is a digital, I think maybe there are not many velocity layers available and the dynamic gaps are covered over by simple volume changes.

If it is an acoustic, then it seems that the microphones are not picking up much of the hammer-string contact sound package. I'm wondering whether you are placing your microphones outside the piano and playing with a closed lid. Or, placing your microphones somewhere that they don't have a direct or near-direct sonic path to the hammer area.

vagfilm

Well... As some others members, I was also confused by the original post and never thought too much about it. After the "apathy" discussion, I finally listened to the file and was going to give my 2cents, only to find that you had "come out" a couple of hours ago...
Anyway, what I was going to say is that it did indeed sound like a digital, but not pianoteq because of the dynamic range shallowness: Ralphiano "I don't hear much timbre change with the dynamic changes", and I fully agree ...
So, the question is: why the narrow dynamic range? Flat velocity curve? Narrow range of midi velocities? If you take the midi file (Pianoteq autosaves everything...) and play it through another pianoteq piano, does it sound the same?

selks

I'm very grateful for the comments so far. I'd like to give it a few more days, perhaps over the weekend, in the hope of some more comments before I reveal what sort of piano it is.

EB5AGV

For my untrained ear, it sounds like an upright, with the top cover closed, and recorded using microphones a bit farther than the player place. I am pretty sure I have goofed totally 😅

selks

EB5AGV Thank you. It's ok it's not intended as a competition I'm just very interested to hear the different opinions.

Christo

Do I get a point for recognising one of the songs is from The Student Prince?😄

selks

Christo Definitely. And bonus points if you name all of the other tunes in the medley🤣

HZPiano

selks I'm wondering if the general apathy explains the lack of opinions on my recent thread:

https://pianoclack.com/forum/d/593-help-with-piano-recording/15

I can count at least 9 in this thread that haven't yet voiced an opinion😀

My thread is a genuine call for assistance which I'll explain when I get a few more opinions.🙏

I'm obviously one of those nine, however as I know nothing about recording*) I do not have any opinion to contribute on this…

Cheers and happy recording,

*) In another era, I did know how to use cassette tapes and how to operate tape decks with those huge reels (Revox, Ferrograph) 😇

dore_m

OK, I'll write something - I was confused by this post actually. I wasn't sure if we were to guess your setup, or help you improve the setup. I guess it's the former, and maybe after we know about how you recorded it, we can evolve into the latter.
It does indeed sound like a modeled piano, and fairly dry as @CyberGene mentioned. I listened with some earbuds, which are not ideal, but I always use "studio monitor" style speakers/headphones that are SUPPOSED to make things sound bad (or at least not artificially boost frequencies that you might like). I assume this was not recorded with mics, which is an entire "how to" thread on it's own.
If I listened on my home theater system, I'm sure it would sound better as I'd get much more room reflection and "ambience" because they're not studio monitors.

macean

I have a confession and an apology.

Confession - I am @selks

Apology - to @CyberGene for abusing the forum.

My reason for doing this was that I couldn't ask the question "What sort of piano do you think I'm playing" as @macean because my previous posts would have told you that I'm using Pianoteq on a CLP115.

And the reason for asking the question was that I've been in a Pianoteq wilderness for a while and had begun to wonder if what I was hearing sounded anything like a piano at all. Some of the posts in this thread https://pianoclack.com/forum/d/569-pianoteq-love-hate-why mentioned similar sorts of experiences with it sounding ok one day and terrible the next, or a particular note suddenly jarring.

Perhaps my question should have been - "Does this sound anything like a piano?".

Anyway I suppose the results are mildly encouraging in that no one has said it sounds nothing like a piano at all. I'm also feeling more encouraged because as I've explained in my thread on Music Stands I'm now able to play some proper music and take advantage of the improvement in expression that Pianoteq gives over my CLP115's built-in sounds.

Finally thank you to all those who have responded to Mr Selks.

CyberGene

macean Anyway I suppose the results are mildly encouraging in that no one has said it sounds nothing like a piano at all.

I think Pianoteq has come a long way to sounding already kind of decent (even) to my ears 😀 I'd say it's just not yet in the league of Garritan CFX and the rest and is more comparable to the recordings you can produce with digital pianos. Sometimes I hear a Pianoteq-ish timbres out of my N1X and I began wondering if I may be too harsh towards PT. But the fact remains, switching to a proper sampled-library the things are just incomparable. That being said, I prefer practicing on the N1X compared to Garritan CFX that I use only when recording, so I can understand people who prefer Pianoteq for its playability.

macean

vagfilm Great idea, thank you. I will try tweaking the Pianoteq settings tomorrow (it's late here) and maybe post a result if it's interesting.

In the longer term I'm practising Debussy's Revêrie and that could be a more revealing piece to record.

dore_m

Ooo... a surprise.

When I get a chance, maybe this weekend, I was thinking of playing something with my Fazioli, Yamaha, and now Steinway libraries to see if people could tell the difference. The twist this time is that because I made the libraries, There will be no variations in recording technique, microphones, pre-amps, etc. Just the room, which is why I close mic.

It's more of a true comparison than between libraries, which don't control all of those variables between them.