Should I Record Piano on My Phone?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 13 січ 2025
- In this video we look at the difference in quality between using a phone and a proper recording setup to record piano, both sound and video.
Many thanks to JF Viljoen for his excellent piano playing.
You can find his channel here:
/ @jfviljoen4488
And the full Clair de Lune video is on JF's channel here:
• Clair de Lune
Brilliant and illuminating video and superb pianist!
Thank you so much!
Very insightful. Thanks David, and JF 😀
Thanks, Damien. Good to hear from you!
This was very helpful, thank you 🙏
As a photographer, one tip I would give is simply just to set your focus to manual and to set your focal point at the name badge on the fall board or basically at middle C and to shoot at a the highest f-stop you can with the lights that you have. This way your hands can both be more or less in focus even as they move around the keyboard.
Another option is to point the camera facing the fallboard at about 45degrees instead of along its length at 0degrees. This angle gives you more view of all the keys and both the hands and from a photographers perspective, you are basically more flattening out the depth of field which will be useful when you want to keep everything in focus.
Think of it like taking a picture of 2 cups on a table: Lets say each cup is about 0.5meters apart -if you are positioned such that one cup is in front of, or partially blocking the other cup then one will be in focus and the other cup out of focus the lower the f-stop used. This is because the plane of focus from one cup to the next is literally 0.5meters apart and your camera cannot focus at two different planes at once.
Of course, the solution if you want both cups in focus is to position them at a “flat” depth of field, meaning the two cups are side by side in the frame instead of in front of each other. This puts them both on the same plane of focus because now each cup is equi-distant to the camera. This allows your camera to focus on both of them at once, on the same plane of focus. Here the plane the cups are on are at 90degrees to the camera instead of 0-5degrees. Moving the camera farther away flattens the depth if field even more.
However, maybe you dont want to shoot “flat” or straight on or move the camera farther back because its is less visually appealing. Using a higher f-stop, such as f5.6 to f8 increases the depth of field, so that more depth at the focal point is in focus. This allows you to keep both cups relatively in focus while still being at more of an angle to the viewer, providing a more dynamic composition. However, you may need to increase your lighting to account for the higher f-stop used.
The same principles are applicable to filming the hands at the keyboard. The 2 cups are your hands at the piano. Keep them on the same plane as possible, or at an angle of about a 20-30degrees with an f-stop of f-5.6 to f8. Maybe f4 if its really dim and you need the light. And turn off auto-focus. Better to make your focal point middle C or the middle letter of your name badge (basically the center of your piano) and to keep the depth of field moderate to high.
Unfortunately, depending on the distance of our camera, we cant always shoot at a true 45degree angle because the shoulders of our performer would block the view of the hands and keys, and the same is true at a view of 90degrees, where the back is completely to the camera. Hope this helps. ❤ I did enjoy the section describing mic positioning.
Thank you for this! I've never had a good detailed explanation of this, even including fstop numbers, and it makes a lot of sense now.
I keep hearing middle c when he begins? (I have perfect pitch) was that just an error or am I hearing things? Very good video. I’m just learning to set this all up. Thank you for the help!
Glad it's helpful. I used various sections of the piece for these comparisons, but the opening definitely isn't middle C. It may be that one of the snippets I used starts on middle C.
@@mccoydtromb it’s like in the fourth bar, but I think it was on my side… I can’t hear it now! My cat on my piano, maybe!!!
Nice work. How did you combine the audio and video? Did you have to edit it and replace its audio with the recording or does the video cam have a stereo line-in?
I recorded all microphones to a DAW and then mixed them in the various combinations I wanted and added to the video in a video editor, so all editing, I'm afraid.
thank you for tasting that for the musicians
So cool!!
Also I will align now any keyboard 🎹, to falling notes like Synthesia.
Thank you for the video, how we can get rid of that buzzy sound, especially while playing high notes?
Do you mean when using a phone? That's most likely a result of distortion, and once it's recorded it's almost impossible to remove it. But perhaps I'm not understanding what you mean...
Another thing which you did not allude to in the commentary, but did take into account in your video, is that the room acoustics plays a big part of the recording quality. In general, while acoustic treatement is unfortunately much pricier than typical audio gear, it's the single biggest upgrade one can do to audio quality when aiming for that professional sound. No expensive mic or speakers can work around a room with big stationary waves, and lots of flutter echo...
Youre absolutely right! I've been very lucky to record in that auditorium which has been excellently treated with non parallel walls, diffusion panels and a high ceiling! It even allows cellphones to sound decent.
I tried recording through a phone, I have to turn up the volume really high to be able to hear the notes clearly. T_T. @@mccoydtromb
they have tripod connections for iPhones!
the iphone 15 is pretty darn good
I can imagine it would be! And if I had that kind of money I would certainly test it out. The main point of this video was to show the wide range of quality that you get, from a cheaper phone to studio equipment (also a good few years ago now!).
Iphones cant still come close to DSLRs and mirrorless. Not unless they can find a way to upgrade sensor size to 1".