[CAUT] 5 Pianos

[Kent Swafford]

Thanks for all the replies, public and private.

The following links contain a description of the audio recorder I used  
to record the 5 pianos:
http://tinyurl.com/2hzedd
http://tinyurl.com/25242u

A very interesting thing is that each of the 5 pianos was named as  
someone's favorite. I take this as evidence that variation in pianos  
is essential. Different manufacturers should take different approaches  
to piano sound -- and there is merit to Steinway's traditional  
approach of letting different pianos coming out of their factories  
having different characters. (I still hate it when a good pianist has  
different requirements of a piano than the one in front of him can  
give.)

Here are the 5 pianos:

1. Yamaha C7 voiced to within an inch of its life some years ago for  
chamber music. This is a fine piano, with a great bass. It now lives  
in a school lunch room, almost completely unappreciated.

2. Bosendorfer Imperial, just back from being rebuilt in Vienna. So  
far, pianists love this piano, although I believe the treble is in  
desperate need of proper voicing. There is little incentive to do the  
voicing because pianists like it as is, so far.

3.  Steinway B recently completely rebuilt by Greg Hulme. The Renner  
hammers are too bright for me, but the piano sounds good.

4.  2000 Steinway D. 700-seat hall. I absolutely love this piano.

5.  Steinway B with belly by Ron Nossaman; I did the action. The piano  
is both clean- and full-sounding. (The same thing that Ric called  
"thin" in the sound I would characterize positively as "transparent".)  
The recordings of the 5 pianos reflect the real volume levels of the  
pianos; I think that a close listen will reveal that Ron's piano has  
the most sound; I also think Ron's piano still sounds good when the  
playback is turned way up; listen close; this piano can bear some  
scrutiny.  8^)

Here is a recording on Ron's B of Dave Brubeck's Greensleeves:

http://tinyurl.com/2obhxn

Thanks for listening.

Kent


On Dec 18, 2007, at 7:55 PM, Michael Wathen wrote:

> That was fun.  Your are a better player than you let on in your  
> post.  All the pianos sound good. I like #2 the best.  #1 sounds  
> completly understated for its size. I am guessing the #1 is an Asian  
> piano.
> Is the lid on full stick?  Is the microphone suspended from the  
> lid?  What kind of mike?  What kind of recording device?
>
> Michael Wathen
> RET
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kent Swafford" <kswafford at gmail.com 
> >
> To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 6:09 PM
> Subject: [CAUT] 5 Pianos
>
>
>>
>> I've been playing with a field audio recorder. I've taken it around  
>> to  5 tunings, played the same music on each freshly tuned piano,  
>> with the  mics always placed at the bridge and strut just below the  
>> top 2  sections. I edited all the recordings together, processing  
>> all the  recordings identically. Close miking tends to minimize the  
>> effects of  recording in wildly different rooms. All of the pianos  
>> are "concert"  grands. Anyone care to play "Name that piano" and/or  
>> express  preferences for the piano sounds? I think it's an  
>> interesting group of  pianos. (I wish the playing was better, but  
>> hey, we're trying to deal  with reality, here!)
>>
>> www.kentswafford.com/mp3/5pianos.mp3
>>
>>
>> Kent Swafford
>>
>