Since Jim has mentioned "acoustrics" in his post I felt that it was finally time tro chime in here with a personal comment of my own; I've been saving it. At one time I was fairly proficient at the piano, as well as the harpsichord and organ; also have about 40 years experience as a recoding engineer (which is nice as well); have recorded everything from solo instruments (keyboard, flute, violin, voice) up to full orchestra with continuo, soloists and double chorus. The acoustics have varied from small living rooms to 3500 seat concert halls. One afternoon I was aked to record the debut (I guess) solo piano concert of a friend of a friend. The venue was local and we had lots of time to set up equipment before the show. I had never worked this venue before, so before establishing the mic positions I checked the room acoustics with my "clap test": simply walking around the hall, clapping my hands, and listening to the hall "speak" to me. [In emergency conditions I sometimes must simply "eyeball" the room's acoustics, observing the materials and dimensions.] Before I made any acoustic tests I had noticed something "odd" about the hall: it had what I whought were oddball proportions. The shape of the room and the placing and shape of the stage didn't seem right. And the floor and ceiling were PARALLEL. I was right, for when I began clapping a BUZZ was coming back! This was being caused by "standing waves" between the ceiling and the floor. The pianist finally arrived and began practicing. It sounded hideous. Harsh and jangling! It made my teeth hurt. There was no possible way to record with a microphone setup (I use an X-Y array) in the hall. I wound up with the mcs offstage, looking at the tail of the piano through a door, at about waist height! The "joke" in my title, above, is that this venue was the Berkeley Piano Club. Cheers, Dave Talcott Consultant
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC