(5-decade pianist here) Graham is right - high shelf with a bit of low is actually a pretty good baseline whether solo or ensemble. Too complex to answer here in full, i.e. digital vs. acoustic pianos, but essentially this: - Bright vs. rich on grand - miking is all of it. Deeper richer sound often towards far (rounded) end of piano where soundboard is narrower and deeper tones last. Brighter (i.e. "jazz solo") sounds best with 2 omnis over strings each about 1/4 way in from ends (i.e. about 2nd and 5th octaves up). Nearer the hammers= brighter percussive attack. - If you don't get the miking the way you want, it's near impossible to "EQ" it the way you want either. If you do, EQing is easy (at least following Graham's outline here). - Digital grands etc. you usually have settings for low/med/high, makes it easy to set brightness vs. richness. And what a guy here said above - DO NOT record echo, reverb, chorus etc. settings on instrument! Record "dry" and do the effects later, else you will get weird distortion (unless of course you're going for it, can sound kinda cool). - I wouldn't worry about extreme low notes... pianists rarely play much below the low "D" because pitches lower than that are barely perceptible as pitches, esp. the low "A" (first note). If someone actually writes for these, the key is performing... of course so many pianists live on the "sustain" pedal but if you're recording they need to back off a bit. But in all my years of playing (which are many) I've probably come across the very low notes a dozen times, and most of that is effect or "push" where the composer was more into effect and tone than pitch. I.e. very low notes are a problem you'll rarely need to lose time over unless the composer is a nut. Just a few things I go by. Otherwise as usual for Graham, less is often better - and on piano it definitely is.
Here in Brazil we don't see many comments like yours. Can only imagine how much experience u have lived. A life filled with music always inspire me, thanks Grand haha 🍻 Cheers
Very insightful. My daughter and I started recording her performing classical piano pieces and posting them on youtube. We started first using her motif, then when she got a better grand, recording the grand. How we had to approach it was very different between the two. But the most important thing is what it sounds like during the recording process. Even with the synth we discovered that recording the sound straight in made a distortion in the upper end that was only eliminated by removing the existing reverb in the piano sound. As for the grand, eliminating the room and finding the right mic position is a must. Not saying we are perfect or anything but those things are sooo helpful.
Thank you. This looks good for simple piano parts. I have tried another technique for busy piano which was causing problems. Convert to mono and pan, then use a limited band of the piano's wide frequency range for the delay/reverb. This kind of goes hand in hand with not mixing too many stereo tracks together.
Hi, it helps. Now - what about a tutorial on producing a SOLO piano track? Perhps with 2 variants: (a) bright / pop and (b) warm / neoclassical. The settings and possibly the instrument choice would be completely different. Also: how would you deal with the (apparent?) contradiction with low notes in the piano. In principle one has Low to the left and high to the right (in solo piano). But if requencies are really low (say below 100 Hz), shouldn't they actually be towards the center? And the lowest A in a piano is only 27,5 Hz! How do you deal with this fact?
Isn’t it. The more I learn the more I realize you gotta work hard to control and set up your low end properly and then it’s simply doing EQ properly and properly making the mix louder on the master
@@Hifcrea I wouldn't agree on the "louder on the master" part. The streaming revolution it's playing a big part into settling the loudness war. Though basic tools are fundamental to master in order to archive a great mix!
a little bright for my ears. I love the Steinways dark warm vibe around 1.5-2K (a2 my fav) and while I agree they should still be boosted in EQ, I would recommend a 6-8db boost not 12 IMHO :) All personal tastes of course. Just thought readers might want to try that first before going airy "pop piano" vibe. Also depends on if you tracked with sdc or ldc. My km84's are bright enough but my C24 needs this exact treatment. Great video brother thank you
Do you have any advice on how to get rid of the thud or squeaky noise of pedal on a solo grand piano, using stock plugins or with an affordable plugin?
If your using a keyboard, turn it off in the the settings if you don’t need it, it’s usually under damper noise. Otherwise have you tried to adjust the mic position to reject pedal noise before trying to eq it out?
►► Download my 8 Step Mixing Checklist and multitrack stems here: mixingchecklist.com/
The free kit web page not working
let me guess, you used Keyscape library ?
the site is reacheable, pls help
(5-decade pianist here)
Graham is right - high shelf with a bit of low is actually a pretty good baseline whether solo or ensemble. Too complex to answer here in full, i.e. digital vs. acoustic pianos, but essentially this:
- Bright vs. rich on grand - miking is all of it. Deeper richer sound often towards far (rounded) end of piano where soundboard is narrower and deeper tones last. Brighter (i.e. "jazz solo") sounds best with 2 omnis over strings each about 1/4 way in from ends (i.e. about 2nd and 5th octaves up). Nearer the hammers= brighter percussive attack.
- If you don't get the miking the way you want, it's near impossible to "EQ" it the way you want either. If you do, EQing is easy (at least following Graham's outline here).
- Digital grands etc. you usually have settings for low/med/high, makes it easy to set brightness vs. richness. And what a guy here said above - DO NOT record echo, reverb, chorus etc. settings on instrument! Record "dry" and do the effects later, else you will get weird distortion (unless of course you're going for it, can sound kinda cool).
- I wouldn't worry about extreme low notes... pianists rarely play much below the low "D" because pitches lower than that are barely perceptible as pitches, esp. the low "A" (first note). If someone actually writes for these, the key is performing... of course so many pianists live on the "sustain" pedal but if you're recording they need to back off a bit. But in all my years of playing (which are many) I've probably come across the very low notes a dozen times, and most of that is effect or "push" where the composer was more into effect and tone than pitch. I.e. very low notes are a problem you'll rarely need to lose time over unless the composer is a nut.
Just a few things I go by. Otherwise as usual for Graham, less is often better - and on piano it definitely is.
Here in Brazil we don't see many comments like yours. Can only imagine how much experience u have lived. A life filled with music always inspire me, thanks Grand haha 🍻 Cheers
Very insightful. My daughter and I started recording her performing classical piano pieces and posting them on youtube. We started first using her motif, then when she got a better grand, recording the grand. How we had to approach it was very different between the two. But the most important thing is what it sounds like during the recording process. Even with the synth we discovered that recording the sound straight in made a distortion in the upper end that was only eliminated by removing the existing reverb in the piano sound. As for the grand, eliminating the room and finding the right mic position is a must. Not saying we are perfect or anything but those things are sooo helpful.
6:05 "I'm also boosting the low-end about 100dB"😩 that's the bass we needed 😂
Unit error. He meant Hz
Thank you. This looks good for simple piano parts. I have tried another technique for busy piano which was causing problems. Convert to mono and pan, then use a limited band of the piano's wide frequency range for the delay/reverb. This kind of goes hand in hand with not mixing too many stereo tracks together.
Hi, it helps. Now - what about a tutorial on producing a SOLO piano track? Perhps with 2 variants: (a) bright / pop and (b) warm / neoclassical. The settings and possibly the instrument choice would be completely different.
Also: how would you deal with the (apparent?) contradiction with low notes in the piano. In principle one has Low to the left and high to the right (in solo piano). But if requencies are really low (say below 100 Hz), shouldn't they actually be towards the center? And the lowest A in a piano is only 27,5 Hz! How do you deal with this fact?
I feel better about my 8db high shelf boost now, thanks.
Don't worry about it. CLA turns that knob all the way to the right, all the time ;)
@@MixChecks 😁👍
It's amazing how much of mixing is simple EQ!
Isn’t it. The more I learn the more I realize you gotta work hard to control and set up your low end properly and then it’s simply doing EQ properly and properly making the mix louder on the master
@@Hifcrea I wouldn't agree on the "louder on the master" part. The streaming revolution it's playing a big part into settling the loudness war. Though basic tools are fundamental to master in order to archive a great mix!
Thanks Graham. Great content. Found you recently on your compression series a few years back
Thank's I will use this from TODAY!
Graham you the best one. Ever.
thank you so much for this video.
a little bright for my ears. I love the Steinways dark warm vibe around 1.5-2K (a2 my fav) and while I agree they should still be boosted in EQ, I would recommend a 6-8db boost not 12 IMHO :) All personal tastes of course. Just thought readers might want to try that first before going airy "pop piano" vibe. Also depends on if you tracked with sdc or ldc. My km84's are bright enough but my C24 needs this exact treatment. Great video brother thank you
Thanks a lot for this clear explanation ! That's the video I was looking for about this topic for a long time.
Thank you, Graham. Mixing University is awesome!
FL Keys sounds so much better with this EQ 😅 Thank you, this helped me a lot 🙏
Ready to learn 😍
Thank you Graham. My pianos have been getting lost. I will give this a try,
I definitely needed the checklist, thank Gram
Thank you so much man! These 10 min tutorials helped me a lot!!
😂
Fantastic Graham... thanks
Wonderful video Sir.
Glad you made this....because I get stuck mixing my piano
Thank you so much! I'll try this with my pianos
Best channel
Works great Thanks G!!
Thank you SO much for this video!
Thanks🔥
Great video--thanks!
Yes yes yes learning
Thanks for the information... Can you show how to get wider mix??
Nice!
Can you make tutorial spinz 808 sound mixing? Under 50hz control very difficult to me. I have not subwoofer.
Great! 👏🏻👍🏻
pls couldnt download the mix checklist. pls help
Nice. Tks
Helpful
Do u cut anything from the piano
Thanks. By the w@y, I am interested in what software you are using to create your videos - the zooms, highlights etc.
Do we have to compress piano?
PIANOS SOUND SO MUDDY !
It sounded better without your plugins bro 😂
Like 60
Very helpful Channel my Friend👍
So i hate mixing piano and Its so strange that i made an instrumental with piano today and this popped up in my email
Do you have any advice on how to get rid of the thud or squeaky noise of pedal on a solo grand piano, using stock plugins or with an affordable plugin?
WD40 :)
If your using a keyboard, turn it off in the the settings if you don’t need it, it’s usually under damper noise. Otherwise have you tried to adjust the mic position to reject pedal noise before trying to eq it out?
Hey how do I record my mpk mini with my Scarlett interface??
Song??
Any chance of something more practical other than cinematic. e.g how to mix a Rhodes or Grand in rock/acoustic songs please?
7:51
Hi, how would you pan keys and 1 electric guitar in a mix?
No compression? I was expecting a little bit with a slow attack
It's already been compressed and saturated during the recording part
estoy sordo
bomber;)
হ্যালো ভাইয়া আমি আপনার চ্যানেলকে সাবস্ক্রাইব করছি আপনিও আমার চ্যানেলটি সাবস্ক্রাইব করুন প্লিজ ভাইয়া
To be fair, that piano part is ghastly the FX are awful.
Perfect timing, thank you!