Re: Studio piano as investment

In article <g1p36p$7mq$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
kludge@xxxxxxxxx (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

david correia <noemail@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Unless you plan on recording a lot of classical music, I would not
recommend a Steinway, for the simple reason that it'll be way too dark
sonically for just about everything else.

Okay, this has more to do with setup than anything else. If you get
a Steinway off the shelf and just put it in place, it will be a lot more
dark than, say, a Yamaha. But a good piano tech can change that. You
can make a Steinway just as bright as a C3 if that's what you want.



But to me, voicing it to be bright would make it not sound like a
Steinway. I know the classical players around here would be pretty
pissed.


One funny story - a very accomplished in her life pianist was brought it
to do a some recording by her kids as a family keepsake, as she was
about to turn 90 and hadn't played much in years.

I wasn't at the session, but the woman kept complaining that our piano
was waaay too dull sounding. No matter what our engineer did with eq and
mic positioning, it was waaay too dull.

It didn't take long for everyone but her to realize that her hearing was
shot. So everyone was kind enough to play along, and got her to play
anyway.


Here's another one: A fellow who had played his whole life but had never
recorded before came in. Again, I wasn't there was this one either.
(That's right, I just take the good sessions. ;>) Our engineer got her
typical very nice piano sound, grabbed a take and played it back for him.

He said it didn't sound right. So she made some changes and recorded
more. He said the same thing. This kept happening. Finally a light bulb
lit in her head.

She realized piano sound he was describing for was the sound he hears
seated and playing at the keys, and not the sound a listener would hear
out in a room or a hall. She convinced him that that was not what folks
are used to hearing when they hear a piano recording, and got the job
done.





David Correia
www.Celebrationsound.com
.

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