Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Recording on iPad using Rode NT55 mic

I figured out the bass issue! YouTube was defaulting to 480p but if you set it to 720p, you get a much fuller and richer sound.

Also forgot to mention in the above instructions for iPad, make sure the Camera App is not open when you plug in the iPad. Plug it in and then open the app!

twocats, conguratulations on getting the stereo recording work.

But, you should lower the gain on of your right channel. See the image below I have taken from your Taubman recording. As you see, the right channel gain is too high (gets over -6dB at times). Also there is some hiss because of the high gain.



I suggest you use some audio software to set your gains as explained in the below link, and then use this setting for the camera app recording.



BTW, the variants are from Jan Ekier National Edition, and this time, I recorded with the music desk taken off, hence a bit brighter treble IMO.

Also make sure the low-cut filter and the high-pass filter switches on the mics are at “0” position.

Sounds wonderful twocats! Great job figuring out a way to do this with much higher quality equipment! I’m watching your thread with much interest and then make some recordings with my equipment to see if it’s worth the upgrade. From what I can tell so far I think it is.

Thanks Hakki for all your help! Guess the left and right channels operate independently and I can't just look at the gain dial and try to get them at a similar looking position. I'll look into some audio software before I record next time (probably after the final regulation/voicing is done on my piano, so may be a little while). I double checked and the low-cut filter and the high-pass filter switches on the mics are at “0” position.

Jethro, I think it's absolutely worth the upgrade! It is such an effort for me to record (I always get nervous and then need to do a lot of takes and end up exhausted, on top of dealing with all the recording issues) so it'll be so nice to get a quality result. I had listened to a bunch of recordings of an H1n after I couldn't get the H4n working with the Camera App, but I didn't like the sound. You can save about $200 by getting a pair of cardioid NT5s, but if you want omni you can currently get NT55s open box on eBay for less than $300 each (same cost as a brand new NT5). I spent less than $850 for the entire setup if you include the mic stand I already owned, buying discounted on eBay where possible

I have a pair of Behringer C2 cardioids laying around and a stereo mixer. I am able to use the H1n as an audio interface with this setup as well to do point and record with an iPad so I have to listen to some recordings again.

I’m not much into making recordings of my playing. For some reason or another I’ve always considered my music happening in a fleeting moment oftentimes not worthy of a recording, (or I’m just too lazy) but there are those occasions when I tell myself, boy I wish I recorded that!

I've had three years of going from zero to recording not only myself but other pianists as well, both in homes and in concert halls.

There is one thing that I've learnt: Microphone set ups from 50 years ago were the result of endless trial and error by people working in radio stations that were publicly funded and whose engineers were at liberty to play around with what was available and could order new stuff when they had a reasonable explanation.

Two of those experiments turned out to be real ear openers for me, having experimented with everything possible under the sun with both cardioid and omni condensers, deliberately not wanting to add a third downmix channel, jut one stereo set up that can be set up quick and dirty and work as expected.

No, nothing is perfect, but once you got a standard setup that you can easily adapt to different recording environments, then this will save you a lot of experimental work and give you really satisfying results.

There are two specific setups for solo piano recordings that I have really come to conclude as the best possible setups without a big hassle:

* ORTF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORTF_stereo_technique
* NOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOS_stereo_technique

Both are are cardioid setups and if you are still in an experimental mood, you can try ORTF with omnis, which also gives nice results, at least in a concert hall, not so much in a home environment.

Both ORTF and NOS cardiod need to be listened to with headphones for the final balance i.e. pointing the mics in the most natural between treble and bass section of a grand piano.

This example isn't perfect, I should have turned the microphone stand a little more towards the left in order to reduce bass dominance, but in general it's a decent standard setup for piano that really gives you pleasure to listen to the piano, both with headphones and speakers. Recorded with a matched pair of cardioid NT5s into a Steinberg audio interface with Yamaha preamplifiers and audacity on Linux as recording software. No postprocessing whatsoever. Piano is a Bechstein D 282 concert grand on stage in a small concert hall in Vienna with Kiron Atom Tellian as pianist in this Rachmaninoff etude.

Very nice! Where were the mics placed in relation to the piano?

Thanks! I will try out NOS (can eyeball 90 degrees easily) when I do my testing. Where do you put the mics, and how far away and how high?

That sounded very excellent !
Both the piano and the pianist.Obviously recorded very well.

IMO, in the 60s mono comparability was very important for broadcasting.

AB stereo is problematic for mono compatibility.

But do we need mono compatibility for our home recordings nowadays? I don’t think so.

IMO, AB stereo with Omnis is the natural way to go when recording a grand piano for classical music.

After a great deal of indecision, I ordered a stereo pair of SE8 small diaphragm condensers and a Focusrite Clarett 4pre. It should all hypothetically arrive tomorrow, but Fedex has lied to me before. I'll try to post a recording once I get everything set up.

Long-term, I'm thinking I would supplement the SE8s with some large diaphragm mics to get more of the room's sound, and then mix them together. Or just to have a mic for my wife to play violin and sing into.