....allmost mate... but as a soundobsessiv freak pianist I'd like to add some tipps....1.) 2-3kHz is where most samples have the most energy and most agressivness.... if you want a smooth warm sound cut there. 2.) a small highshelf boost from 8-9kHz on enhances those incredible piano harmonics and adds richness without sounding harsh. 3.) Popguys allmos always use highpass and sometimes even lowpass filters. If you want a REAL Piano sound don't use them if it works without... piano is not a midrange instrument.... it has all the frequencies in full. If you must use highpass filters try using ones with 12db/octave or even 6 db/octave slopes. Never use a lowpass filters... 4.) Don't compress the piano.... if the soft parts get lost in the mix use paralell compression if you want to keep a natural realistic sound. A compressed Sound is great too, but far from a realisitc tone.
This video helped me a lot to improve a piano sound and I really appreciate your great work, Graham. I'm happy to find this channel. Thank you so much.
Great tip...I appreciate your use of EQ on this and other videos. It's a breath of fresh air to hear someone use it instead of trying to get complicated with a handful of plugins that usually alter the sound in an artificial way.
God has blessed me with your videos, thank you for your commitment helping others such as myself, im definitely growing in my ministry because of this.
Thank you,Graham...you helped me out a lot with my video. I'm mixing out a song for a video I'm shooting this week and the piano part i had was kind of bland. This definitely helped my song out. My piano sounds real and it's easy for me to mix it with the rest of the instruments. YOU ARE MY MENTOR!!!
Well Done Graham. Small subtle changes to EQ then throwing it in a big room reverb. Very well done sir. Once again, thank you for the reminder of "tastefulness above all"
I like what he's done here... but I think it's important to mention that it's really very contextual - totally dependent on the song, as well as with the style of the player. On some songs, that lower mid range that he's cut here works well - and there may be times you might not want it as bright as he has here. It's like the difference between McCartney's piano on Let It Be, very soft and warm, in comparison to a Bruce Hornsby track like Mandolin Rain, that has a lot more "attack" to the sound. Both are great, but also very different tonally. I think he provides a good place to start here, but you should always let the song and the player determine the sound you need.
Wow, I'm actually surprised by how good that sounded even with the highs cranked up to +12 or whatever. You have a really good ear for frequencies my man.
Awesome video!!!! I've got to tell you, I have been saving up to get the API bundle, but watching you use the SSL it pretty awesome. Got me thinking more...
Basically cutting the bad harmonics 400hz and 800hz, which are multiples of each other. Then adding back in higher multiples of what was taken out, roughly 1200hz and 6400hz. There's a lot of math you can do with this stuff, but in the end USE YOUR EARS! :)
Those aren't only ranges of harmonics, they're ranges of frequencies. In the process, he's cutting fundamentals too, and many "good" harmonics as well, if you will. And good and bad instrument and room noise noise. EQ isn't an instrument correction tool. It's a microphone and room correction tool.
Nice vid Graham. Even on some more expensive piano plugins I own, I find they too still have some of that "fake" sound to them. Definitely gonna give the EQ some love now. Thanks for the tip!
Yup, 800 Hz was the first partial of 400 Hz; great tips - very useful; thanks!! Agree with other remarks about the different genres requiring different tonalities; context is always important - what is the source material like and what is the genre in which it is to be placed.
I am also familiar with his advise on cutting. It is meant as a guideline but not a rule. I always do both. Cut what is bad and boost what is good when it needs it. If it were a hardfast rule then SSL, Pultec and Neve would not have gain knobs;) Cutting is preferred because boosting induces noise and phase issues, but 3db is really minimal. The only real rule is; If it sounds good, it is good. Break any other rules you need to to get there.
Hi Graham, Thanks for this clip i've been having this issue with my keyboard and samples - Worked a treat! I don't suppose you could post a link to that tune could you it sounds great.
Although usually you want to cut sometimes boosting is a good idea. When mixing kick and bass many times mixers will boost lets say 60 Hz on the bass while cutting 60 Hz on the kick while boosting 80 Hz on the Kick and cutting it on the bass. This way the two aren't fighting for frequency room in the mix.
Graham, have you heard of pianoverb from PSP? it mimics piano harmonics and has a very unique sound. Add it to a dry piano patch and it can make it sound MUCH more real. its free to download when you make an account on their site too
It´s better, but still sounds plastic. I feel the lack of an "ambience", kind of thing we ever hear on acoustic piano recordings. I´m also strugling to get a good solo electronic piano recording. So far, I use Sonar X3 as DAW and several plugins, but my recordings of solo piano are thin and looks plastic also, looks like mono sound. I´d like I could make it more like an acoustic piano, very warm, more wood, natual, ambience. Some way I could improve the realism a little bit was passing the output sound of my Focusrite Pro 40 thru an analog mixer like Mackie 32/8 which has a great headroom and warm sound and capture the analog result from another computer/interface and so, apply some plugins. Apparently, the THIN problem all these electronic pianos have happens when DAW mixes down to 2 channels and lose harmonics. Any ideas or plugins, compressors, exciters, any other tips ?
He didn't explain why or how he used the vcc before the ssl, or the saturator after it. I know the ssl sounds like it did the heavy lifting, but still, we all know a little goes a long way.
to be fair i preffered the piano when you said "it sounded boxy and fake" to me it sounded deep and sexy.the real sound at the end is anoiying to the ears.to put much thought on realism...put it instead on how you want it to sound.but hey each to their own.and what do i know i'm not on tv speaking so i mean nothing as an entity.
Everyone has heard a real piano. Dirty your piano up. That is what's going to separate you from others. Do something different. Pay attention to your fav songs and see if their piano sounds "real". …Great Video!
The raw sample sounds horrible because you recorded it in mono. The stereo sample would have been 10x superior in quality. Since the mix was piano heavy and up front the stereo recording would have sounded great. All great sample patches are recorded in stereo, if you don't use them you get a piano that sounds like a toy.
If he recorded in stereo and summed it up to mono for mixing, it would sound WORSE. Take it from someone who mixing piano from a keyboard regularly and has done both. The hardest part in mixing sampled piano is getting it to sound good in mono. So even if it sounds great in mono, there's literally a 100% chance it sounds like crap in mono.
Yes, mix down with mono is just as bad, better to record in mono and use a delay and modulated reverb to breath life back into it. But the piano should be stereo through out the recording process, mix and master.
+Jenny Last you're missing the point. Mixing in stereo is a horrible idea. Do that, and trust me, if you sum that up to mono, it sounds like shit. Again, please don't argue with that, I've actually done both. If it never happened to you, it just means you mixed in stereo really well.
....allmost mate... but as a soundobsessiv freak pianist I'd like to add some tipps....1.) 2-3kHz is where most samples have the most energy and most agressivness.... if you want a smooth warm sound cut there. 2.) a small highshelf boost from 8-9kHz on enhances those incredible piano harmonics and adds richness without sounding harsh. 3.) Popguys allmos always use highpass and sometimes even lowpass filters. If you want a REAL Piano sound don't use them if it works without... piano is not a midrange instrument.... it has all the frequencies in full. If you must use highpass filters try using ones with 12db/octave or even 6 db/octave slopes. Never use a lowpass filters... 4.) Don't compress the piano.... if the soft parts get lost in the mix use paralell compression if you want to keep a natural realistic sound. A compressed Sound is great too, but far from a realisitc tone.
Thank you so much for sharing this! The result is great.
.
This video helped me a lot to improve a piano sound and I really appreciate your great work, Graham. I'm happy to find this channel. Thank you so much.
Great tip...I appreciate your use of EQ on this and other videos. It's a breath of fresh air to hear someone use it instead of trying to get complicated with a handful of plugins that usually alter the sound in an artificial way.
Thanks for making this video Graham. I also really liked your interview on the URM podcast.
Great Video. What I observed here is there are so many people who are not seeing the positive learning in the video instead finding faults!
SUPER useful for me. I've been struggling to get a good sound from a sampled piano, thanks Graham!
God has blessed me with your videos, thank you for your commitment helping others such as myself, im definitely growing in my ministry because of this.
Thank you,Graham...you helped me out a lot with my video. I'm mixing out a song for a video I'm shooting this week and the piano part i had was kind of bland. This definitely helped my song out. My piano sounds real and it's easy for me to mix it with the rest of the instruments. YOU ARE MY MENTOR!!!
Thanks for this. Have been struggling with a piano-heavy song. This was very much needed.
cant wait to open up some old sessions and work on piano now! thanks!
Very nice! One of the best tutorials I've seen on youtube
Well Done Graham. Small subtle changes to EQ then throwing it in a big room reverb. Very well done sir. Once again, thank you for the reminder of "tastefulness above all"
Impressive! Thanks so much. I know that muffled e-piano sound which one of my buddies e-piano has. that's a great solution. thank you so much, Graham!
Nice tutorial ... I really learned a lot from this
I like what he's done here... but I think it's important to mention that it's really very contextual - totally dependent on the song, as well as with the style of the player. On some songs, that lower mid range that he's cut here works well - and there may be times you might not want it as bright as he has here. It's like the difference between McCartney's piano on Let It Be, very soft and warm, in comparison to a Bruce Hornsby track like Mandolin Rain, that has a lot more "attack" to the sound. Both are great, but also very different tonally.
I think he provides a good place to start here, but you should always let the song and the player determine the sound you need.
Wow, I'm actually surprised by how good that sounded even with the highs cranked up to +12 or whatever. You have a really good ear for frequencies my man.
Awesome video!!!! I've got to tell you, I have been saving up to get the API bundle, but watching you use the SSL it pretty awesome. Got me thinking more...
I really like this guy´s style to explain things! Simple and easy to understand! Thank you :)
This is a great way to go about mixing a piano, thanks!
This sounds great graham !
Great! Thanks for uploading!
Basically cutting the bad harmonics 400hz and 800hz, which are multiples of each other. Then adding back in higher multiples of what was taken out, roughly 1200hz and 6400hz. There's a lot of math you can do with this stuff, but in the end USE YOUR EARS! :)
Those aren't only ranges of harmonics, they're ranges of frequencies. In the process, he's cutting fundamentals too, and many "good" harmonics as well, if you will. And good and bad instrument and room noise noise. EQ isn't an instrument correction tool. It's a microphone and room correction tool.
Nice vid Graham. Even on some more expensive piano plugins I own, I find they too still have some of that "fake" sound to them. Definitely gonna give the EQ some love now. Thanks for the tip!
Very helpful, thanks Graham!
Thank you for this great tutorial👍🙏
This is so helpful. Thanks!
This is a good video. Never thought about approaching EQ'ing this way.
hey man, i just read your comment and believe it or not you just helped me out a lot dude! thx
Really cool ... makes a big difference!
Thanks for the work.
Hey man, you explain so well. Thanks a lot!
helpful thanks....the one I was working on didn't need much low cut out but it is contextual as the commenter below added.
Loving the videos :)
God bless Graham, long live to The Recording Revolition! :-)
Great tip. Very helpful. Thank you
Good stuff, thanks!
CLA Unplugged on piano is amazing as well
Fantacstic, my mix became more and more real!!!
great guide, thank you
Thank you for making this..i learnt something =)
great video graham!
Yup, 800 Hz was the first partial of 400 Hz; great tips - very useful; thanks!! Agree with other remarks about the different genres requiring different tonalities; context is always important - what is the source material like and what is the genre in which it is to be placed.
great tuturial man
man I haven't recorded in a while and watching this almost made me cry. I need to get back into recording :(
Excellent!
Awesome!
Looks like I have to step up my mixing!
Amazing! Thanks =)
I am also familiar with his advise on cutting. It is meant as a guideline but not a rule. I always do both. Cut what is bad and boost what is good when it needs it. If it were a hardfast rule then SSL, Pultec and Neve would not have gain knobs;) Cutting is preferred because boosting induces noise and phase issues, but 3db is really minimal. The only real rule is; If it sounds good, it is good. Break any other rules you need to to get there.
Why didn't you record the Korg piano in stereo?
wow. That was fantastic.
Thanks!
Hi Graham, Thanks for this clip i've been having this issue with my keyboard and samples - Worked a treat! I don't suppose you could post a link to that tune could you it sounds great.
Yes very nice piano indeed. Did you eventually make it stereo or just leave the stereo effect to the reverb ?
Although usually you want to cut sometimes boosting is a good idea. When mixing kick and bass many times mixers will boost lets say 60 Hz on the bass while cutting 60 Hz on the kick while boosting 80 Hz on the Kick and cutting it on the bass. This way the two aren't fighting for frequency room in the mix.
Superb vid captain thanks
Good stuff
Sounds fantastic! Do you have tips for sampled drums?
There is piano preset in SSLG and it gives awesome sound too.
nice, thx for the tip
Graham, have you heard of pianoverb from PSP? it mimics piano harmonics and has a very unique sound. Add it to a dry piano patch and it can make it sound MUCH more real. its free to download when you make an account on their site too
not a bad sounding piano!
Aphex Exciter does great job with pianos too.
Sweet Eqing my friend 👌
Sampled pianos always tend to sound too bright
I assume you used left and right mono leads into the Daw from the Korg?
very cool
Use this trick all the time
Hey, so I've been running into this often and I simply don't know, what is the difference between the SSL E and G channel?
clever clever clever...EQ with your brain and keep the original instrument character in mind
best little vid ...eee-verrrr
Hey graham could you possibly do some tips on mixing,eq'ing rhodes keys or do the same principles of frequency bands apply?
Rhodes are a nightmare to mix lol
Hey Graham, what piano sample are you using here?
Thanks!
Yes sir,how do you convert track like this piano track to stereo?
It´s better, but still sounds plastic. I feel the lack of an "ambience", kind of thing we ever hear on acoustic piano recordings. I´m also strugling to get a good solo electronic piano recording. So far, I use Sonar X3 as DAW and several plugins, but my recordings of solo piano are thin and looks plastic also, looks like mono sound. I´d like I could make it more like an acoustic piano, very warm, more wood, natual, ambience. Some way I could improve the realism a little bit was passing the output sound of my Focusrite Pro 40 thru an analog mixer like Mackie 32/8 which has a great headroom and warm sound and capture the analog result from another computer/interface and so, apply some plugins. Apparently, the THIN problem all these electronic pianos have happens when DAW mixes down to 2 channels and lose harmonics. Any ideas or plugins, compressors, exciters, any other tips ?
Scope out the nasty stuff. Realness right there
What if you used a dynamic EQ? Especially in the mid-high end. Should give it even more life, right?
yes bro
Graham, you're the shit.
Could anyone please tell me how to master a sampled piano ??? I ve been finding videos for it but no one has touched that topic
is that high filter a shelf?
And here the theory "Cut rather than boost" falls in the water ;)
BINGO!
it would be better to show this as graph EQ than just numbers
He didn't explain why or how he used the vcc before the ssl, or the saturator after it. I know the ssl sounds like it did the heavy lifting, but still, we all know a little goes a long way.
That is a very funny post because Graham is quite the Christian. Sometimes even Satan needs some mixing tips though:)
to be fair i preffered the piano when you said "it sounded boxy and fake" to me it sounded deep and sexy.the real sound at the end is anoiying to the ears.to put much thought on realism...put it instead on how you want it to sound.but hey each to their own.and what do i know i'm not on tv speaking so i mean nothing as an entity.
Everyone has heard a real piano. Dirty your piano up. That is what's going to separate you from others. Do something different. Pay attention to your fav songs and see if their piano sounds "real". …Great Video!
Looks like I need another headphones - heavn't noticed almost no difference.
There are no "rules" in mixing. Only "guidelines". =)
The raw sample sounds horrible because you recorded it in mono. The stereo sample would have been 10x superior in quality. Since the mix was piano heavy and up front the stereo recording would have sounded great. All great sample patches are recorded in stereo, if you don't use them you get a piano that sounds like a toy.
If he recorded in stereo and summed it up to mono for mixing, it would sound WORSE. Take it from someone who mixing piano from a keyboard regularly and has done both. The hardest part in mixing sampled piano is getting it to sound good in mono. So even if it sounds great in mono, there's literally a 100% chance it sounds like crap in mono.
Yes, mix down with mono is just as bad, better to record in mono and use a delay and modulated reverb to breath life back into it. But the piano should be stereo through out the recording process, mix and master.
+Jenny Last you're missing the point. Mixing in stereo is a horrible idea. Do that, and trust me, if you sum that up to mono, it sounds like shit. Again, please don't argue with that, I've actually done both. If it never happened to you, it just means you mixed in stereo really well.
+Jenny Last in my experience, adding reverb makes it sound even muddier, you're gonna have to work hard with the EQ if you do that
Aarcvard Kray or just EQ the reverb..
Sounds horrible before and after!