Disklavier

My wife is recording on a Disklavier Mark III Control Unit DKC55RCD for the purpose of a recorded audio accompaniment.

1) To perfect the recording, she wants to reduce the effect of the note attack, especially on the lower/bass notes

2) Straight mic is too harsh

3) Mic'ing from DSK speaker output is audio of MIDI and sounds too muddy

4a) Editing the MIDI shows Ch 1 with controller 64 (sustain pedal) AND notes; Ch 2 shows the identical controller and same values as Ch 1
4b) I deleted the duplicate controller channel w/o noticeable affect

5) Converting MIDI to MP3 of course is dependent upon sound card of computer, but the overbearing note attack is still present.

I have an old MIDI editor, MidiSoft/Studio 4 and Cakewalk 7. Right now we are experimenting with limiting the sustain controller to a max value of 100 to see if that has any affect.

Suggestions needed to get a decent audio to remove note 'attack' via MIDI events and/or reduce muddiness of sustain pedal.

Anyone willing to listen to the file and give advice would be greatly appreciated.

Fred
New Jersey

George,

Thank you for your quick response. Yes, we had been tweaking the velocities with some success. I need time to digest your detailed explanation of the sustain pedals mechanics and MIDI values. I had already advise the performer, my wife, to re-record ... but you know how thoses things are ;>)

Can you recommend a good web link for miking a piano: mic type/pattern, position (some say in front, some say behind, some say raised above), distance from piano, etc.? 

Fred
NJ
 
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 7/16/13, George Frederick Litterst <PianoBench@...> wrote:

 Good afternoon, everyone.
 Fred, miking a piano and getting good quality
 results is a bit of an art and is dependent upon the quality
 of the microphones, the voicing of the piano, and the
 performance itself.
 I think that the place to start is with the
 performance itself. If you are not happy with the playback
 of the recording on the Disklavier, that means that the
 performance either needs editing or--if the playback is
 different from the original performance--the piano needs
 calibration and possibly mechanical adjustment.
 Any MIDI sequencer will let you edit the
 individual velocities of the notes. If you want to
 "reduce the effect of the note attack," you
 probably need to reduce the velocities of the problem
  notes.
 The sustain pedal ranges in MIDI value from 0
 (Off) to 127 (fully engaged). If you look at the dampers
 inside the piano, you'll notice that there is a point at
 which they are fully off the strings. From that point to the
 point of fully engaging the pedal, there is no additional
 benefit to higher values for controller 64.
 Somewhere in the range of MIDI values 1 to 60 or
 70, there is an area in which the dampers are slightly but
 not fully dampening the strings. If you find that the
 pedaling sounds muddy, this probably means that the pianist
 is never fully releasing the pedal (i.e. generating a value
 of 0), and the result is some muddiness of the sound. If
 that is the way that the original performance sounded, the
 pianist should either record the piece again, giving
 attention to the full release of the pedal, or you will have
 to do some sophisticated editing of the pedal data. A
 sequencer that gives you a graphic view of the pedal data
 can be very helpful in this regard.
 On the other hand, if the playback sounds more
 muddy than the original performance, there may be a problem
 with the playback of the Disklavier. Iit may be necessary to
 have the pedal mechanically adjusted and then the instrument
 calibrated.
 Regards,PianoBench
 
 On Jul 16, 2013, at 4:11 PM, FC TC
 wrote:

     My wife is recording
 on a Disklavier Mark III Control Unit DKC55RCD for the
 purpose of a recorded audio accompaniment.
 
 1) To perfect the recording, she wants to reduce the effect
 of the note attack, especially on the lower/bass notes
 
 2) Straight mic is too harsh
 
 3) Mic'ing from DSK speaker output is audio of MIDI and
 sounds too muddy
 
 4a) Editing the MIDI shows Ch 1 with controller 64 (sustain
 pedal) AND notes; Ch 2 shows the identical controller and
 same values as Ch 1
 
 4b) I deleted the duplicate controller channel w/o
 noticeable affect
 
 5) Converting MIDI to MP3 of course is dependent upon sound
 card of computer, but the overbearing note attack is still
 present.
 
 I have an old MIDI editor, MidiSoft/Studio 4 and Cakewalk 7.
 Right now we are experimenting with limiting the sustain
 controller to a max value of 100 to see if that has any
 affect.
 
 Suggestions needed to get a decent audio to remove note
 'attack' via MIDI events and/or reduce muddiness of
 sustain pedal.
 
 Anyone willing to listen to the file and give advice would
 be greatly appreciated.
 
 Fred
 New Jersey

Hello Fred

Reading your question I cannot really help you for changing the midi file specs, but as someone suggested re recording it at a lower speed can help to put special attention on the way ones touch the keys and thus maybe reducing the harshness... but playing slower has also its drawback since if your not too good with tempo you can drag into outer space... But if succeeded a slo tempo file that is then speeded up can sound very convincing (not always though).

Once anyway you have your midi file I wouldn't waste any time in trying to make an audio recording of your piano (indeed you need to take so many parapeters in question its a long process UNLESS you youd like to learn that... then its a good way to start). That was fine 20 years ago but now if you have access to a decent computer equiped with a sequencer that houses a sampled (Garritan, Pianoteq, or even no name samples since your not trying to create an orchestral sound but the one of a piano which is kind of simpler to achieve) piano I would say that is the way to go. It permits you to tailor the sound that you like and then add some reverb etc... when its nice you burn it in a Aiff file or cd and its done... and you listen after a couple days and you improve a bit (not always!)

Hope this little bit helps