Help Mixing a Piano
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Posted on Dec 02, 2007 07:21 pm
meltdown5
Faze 2 Studios
Member Since: Aug 15, 2005
Ok, so as some of you may know me and a friend have been Putting together a project that includes a Piano. never having done one before ive felt pretty lost during this whole project. I have just a few mixing questions. Its an upright Piano that was recorded using a Rode Nt1000 and an At 40/40 possitioned about 6 inches off the soundboard each mic on opposite ends of the soundboard.
How would you guys suggest i Compress the piano? What are good Attack and release times?
What about Eq? I mean i can probably figure this one out, but do you guys have any suggested places to cut or boost?
Ive been fiddling around with adding reverb to this piece and i cant seem to get it right. Now the tracks already have a bit on them, BUT i want to add just a tad more and i cant seem to ge tit right. any suggestions?
thanks a lot
-Melty
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Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 02, 2007 09:10 pm Well I rarely if ever compress a piano to be honest. Unless of course the playing is that uneven I wouldn't mess about with it. But if you have to you want a fast attack and slow release. And I honestly would not compress with a ratio higher then 2:1.
AS for reverb, if it is making it sound like crap then don't use any. Or find a very small room type reverb and use it very sparingly.
On EQ, you will only want tiny little bits if it needs it. The sound of a piano can be ruined easily with too much boosting on the EQ.
Dec 03, 2007 03:16 am what other tracks are beein' mixed with the piano? you don't need to mess with it much if it's a singer/songwriter type song....but if you throw in guitars, bass, drums, etc. then you will have to eq a bit more (subtractive that is)....it then turns into a 'space' issue....is the piano the main instrument in the arrangement, or more of a 'fill in' type background track?
context is everything.
Dec 03, 2007 04:09 am as noize says, here may not be any need to greatly compress a piano, but if you do do it, make sure that attack is quick.
but where i would maybe disagree with noize is on the EQ issue, but it depends. using EQ on piano can create, basically, a novel piano. you can spike mids and highs and make it sound like a different instrument, if the mix needs that. the percussive effect of the piano is key, so you want to preserve that, but beyond that, i sort of think: whatever works for the mix, in terms of EQ. i play a lot of piano, and when there are electric guitars in the mix, i find myself revamping the thing to be punchier and punchier, by spiking the mids on the thing. of course, i'm usually drunk when doing that, and i've never really finished a song the whole time i've been at hrc, which is by nnow a long time. but i just don't really care about modifying the tone of the piano if it will make it cut through a bit more. i kind of see the process as sort of creating a new percussive instrument, whatever the mix needs. and if there are electric guitars, i need some compression on the thing, because otherwise it just doesn't really show up.
watch out for reverb, though. it works best in mixes that have few other instruments in there. otherwise the piano just gets buried. i would almost say that the more 'noise' or other instruments you have in the piece, the less reverb on the piano you need. but if your mix has very few other instruments, you can then crank up the reverb. it's almost a complete inverse relationship.
i just said very little with lots of words.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 03, 2007 04:08 pm Ya, I guess I'm not saying don't use any EQ. But if you want to keep a pure piano sound don't over do the EQ.
I have to be honest, I am not one for pure sounds in most of my work. In fact, even though I have some killer pure piano instruments they usually end up butchered for lack of a better term into something completely different.
So if you are after a unique sound, by all means twist the knobs and wreak havoc on it. But if your after pure piano tone don't mess about too much with EQ.
