Disklavier

Don't give up!  I am a professional piano technician
who gets paid to prepare Yamaha pianos for noiseless,
professional recordings.  I have learned a few things
in the past two years that I never would have imagined
making such a huge difference.

First, the placement of the microphones is crucial and
you really need to experiment with different placements
for your room.  The best position I have seen is two
microphones, one atop the other with the top one upside
down, in an x y position, about 6 feet from the piano.
You get stereo sound with very little action noise.

Second, I should tell you that I spend about 4 to 5
hours preparing the piano for each recording session.
Not just tuning and voicing, but preparing the piano
action as well.  The action screws need to be tight.
Also, the catcher distance must be just right so the
key doesn't thump too loudly on the way down.  I also
find it extremely important to fluff up the whippen
cushions a tad if the keys are noisy when returning. I
often spend an hour just adjusting the pedals!

There is no reason on earth why a DU1 should not make
beautiful, noiseless recordings.  My best successes are
with clients who will pay for my time to get their
pianos in super condition.  They just don't come that
way for nothing!  Even if you had a Pro model, you
would still need to get the piano in shape!

Carol Beigel

----- Original Message -----
From: "franpeyr" <fpeyrony@...>
To: <disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 1:19 PM
Subject: [disklavier] Re: Audio recording with key's
noise


Good evening everybody

I want to tell you every information about my
"problem".

Sooooo, it will be a little bit hard to say it in
english...

First, there are differences, hudge, between the Mark
III (full function or not) and the Pro
series, and one of these differences is the fact that
only the Pro series pianos are
controlling the return of the keys. The midi parameter
"velocity note off" is used for it, and
with Mark lll Series, it makes nothing.

Second, there are differences between uprights and
grands pianos, and one of those is the
mechanic of the hammer itself. It's hard to explain,
but the DK mecanism, while working
on an upright, is not using the long part of the key,
but the short one, which is lested. It
means that, when DK stops playing a key, the key
returns to her initial position faster and
stronger than with a finger.

It's a Yamaha's french specialist of the DK who told me
that. So, there is *nothing* to do
with my problem (the only solution is to by a pro-grand
piano, wich is veeeery expensive,
and unfortunally I don't have the house to contain
it...).

Those woody sounds are disturbing, but only if you play
few notes, and you want to record
a little close to the harmony table, ok.
But "adios" to Debussy-like, Arvo P\ufffdrt-like,....
Peyrony-like (that's my name :\ufffd)  )

WHat do you think of that ?





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