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The 2nd recording has much less noise from the action. That action noise is actually pretty awful on my good headphones so I really prefer the 2nd recording here.

The treble sounds also better, the 1st recording has a little bit of nasality that is much less in the 2nd recording. I heard that only now on my good headphones

There is also a better depth of field here.

And the bass is also better here.

In all, seems a nobrainer to me

Yeah, lots of improvements!!!

Still a fairly tight sound, which isn't necessarily bad. Can you play something with lots of pedal, just to compare?

Thanks for taking the time to listen and providing feedback. I now realize there is lots of work to get a good sounding recording. Not sure I am ready for what I may be getting myself into.

I'll keep in mind to post something that actually uses the sustain pedal and more bass for you guys to comment on. I will post a complete piece instead of just a sample of a not yet learned piece next time. Now I will go learn how to use this thing properly.

To judge the quality a short piece is good enough. Like 15 to 20 seconds is way enough. More is just tiring and blurs the judgment (your ears start to adapt after that).

Furthermore, I would stay away from the pedal and use a piece with staccato stuff. Makes it much easier to judge the quality of the room and piano acoustics. Pedal makes it impossible to judge that. Besides, pedal sounds fine in almost every condition, no need to test that.

To enable comparing, play the same piece.

I must disagree with the above.

When setting up the mics you have to exercise the pedals. Not just to judge the sound of the piano but the mechanical action of the pedal itself.

In some mic positions you can loudly hear every squeak and thud of the pedal movements (often when released), which get very distracting and can easily ruin a recording.

Yes you may want to test for pedal sound but that is not what you was asking. You wanted to *play the piece* with pedal.

I say that you can't judge the piano sound and room sound properly if you use pedal in the playing.

Read what I posted again. I never asked the OP to play the same piece again with pedal. I asked the OP to play something with pedals.

We already heard how the piano records without the pedal. We can't judge how it records with pedal unless we test it using the pedal.

This is basic recording 101.

ok there might be a misunderstanding.

I understood your post as suggestion for a new recording: play 'anything' (something) but with pedals. Apparently that is not what you ment.

So you want ALSO to hear something with pedal I assume, not instead? So why not just exercise the pedal, WITHOUT playing anything?

There are two things we should evaluate.

One is the sound of the piano, as recorded, with the sustain pedal on. So you have to play some music, with the pedal pressed (held down).

The second is the mechanical sound of the pedal in relation to the piano sound. You have to play some music, with the pedal moving (up and down, not held down).

In the second test, think of it as a "signal to noise" evaluation. We need the signal (from playing something, hopefully at differing volume dynamics) AND the noise (from the pedal). It's the ratio between these two sounds which we care about. Some pedal noise is completely natural, and is part of the "acoustic piano sound". However, excessive pedal noise due to unfortunate mic position can drown out the music.

If we only record the pedal in isolation, we only hear the "noise" but without the reference "signal". It's hard to make accurate judgements this way.

Thanks. You'll get both. I'll play something in List C (Romantic) with pedal and something dry List A (Bach) without but you already heard Kulau from List B (Classical) so Bach is not necessary probably. Thanks for suggesting that a short sample is enough as before. Then I could focus on learning recording without practicing piano. :p

I'm going to tweak the position of the mic and figuring out where to place the stand. Unfortunately, I only have time to do that during the weekends....

I'm thinking the concensus is to keep the Yeti right? Sounds like it is decent and has potential.

ok, we disagree then.

@4everbeginner
Did you make another recording? I'm interested in buying the blue yeti myself.

Yes, I recently was doddling on the piano and testing the Yeti Pro - http://soundcloud.com/4evrbeginr/test03. I'm still learning this whole recording thing, but improving.

This is straight out of the Yeti Pro. This is without reverb or manipulation of the file. The original file was captured at 24-bit / 96,000 Hz from Yeti Pro and sounds better, but exporting to 16-bit WAV downgrades the sound a bit.

I am still learning how to record, but here's the latest effort using this mic.

Please have a listen on this latest recording effort. Feedbacks welcomed. http://soundcloud.com/4evrbeginr/norton-wound-up

If you download the CD-quality WAV, it sounds better than listening to the stream directly from soundcloud.com. I read in other threads that commented the Yeti sounds terrible. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with it for now, but also wonder if my newbie use of it has contributed to its poor impression.

Unless there is something not right I'm not hearing, I'll be using these sets of parameters for recording from now on until I get something else.


Thanks...