Is Amateur Piano Recording This Hard?

[amirm]

I have been watching a lot of short piano videos. With almost no exception, they sound so distorted and poor to me. I assume some are recorded using iPhones and such. Others appear to have pro videographers yet the sound is just awful. Are they just doing a poor job or is it this difficult? I mostly hear the distortion from the bass notes. Some examples:

This one seems under water:

Every one of her videos sound bad in a different way!

Another under water:

This one screwed up the image too:

Another one with good image but so bad of a recording:

Professional recordings sound infinitely better no matter which album I listen to. Any ideas?

 

[amirm]

Adding on, when reading the comments, not one person says anything about bad recordings! Are folks this tolerant of distortion and bad sound quality?

 

[sam_adams]

From my own reading, pianos are one of the hardest—if not the hardest—musical instrument to mic properly for recording. It's no wonder those recordings are bad—even for YT.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Looks to me like a combination of bad rooms (too lively) and phone mics with phones used for the video.

Funny thing is the first recording I made in stereo, I went to a small musical event at a church. Knew some of the players. They mentioned dissatisfaction with their recordings done from the mixer board. On a whim, I took two Android phones. Sat in the 2nd row and put one each atop a stack of hymnals in a spaced omni technique. It wasn't great, but they liked it better than the mixer board recording. Funny how some people tolerate really poor recordings.

For anyone doing a phone recording with I-devices, the little Dayton Audio IMM-6 or 6S will do a pretty good job for $20.

Dayton Audio - iMM-6S iDevice Calibrated Microphone Straight

iMM-6S iDevice Calibrated Microphone Straight

www.daytonaudio.com

 

[thecheapseats]

Adding on, when reading the comments, not one person says anything about bad recordings! Are folks this tolerant of distortion and bad sound quality?

as to both of your comments - I think many of these recordings you posted/refer to are content focused - and not examples of good recording practices... that said (and without divulging personal information) - recording a piano well is a real challenge even in the best of professional recording environments... so many variables at play (pardon the pun) - starting with the instrument itself - the room in which it is recorded and how it is treated for that particular session - mic selection and placement - as well as the performer... to be crude - it ain't easy...

 

[Philbo King]

Most Youtube piano posts (and many other instruments) aren't about the sound; they're more along the lines of "look how good I can play!"

Pianos can be tough to record well. Mic too close to the strings and you get uneven response (strings farther the mic come out weaker). But a more distant mic requires a properly treated room to avoids standing wave nulls & peaks and excessive reverb.

I usually record my upright piano with 3 SDC mics, 2 inside the top cover and 1 inside the bottom cover, add a room mic for light ambience and balance the mix according to the needs of the music.

To be honest, most often I record piano from a rack mount synth fed by a midi keyboard, or play the piano part on one of my guitar synths. It gets the job done, and I find the expressive touch of the guitar synth far more convincing than my playing on my 110 year old acoustic piano.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

From past experience recording them, I know that a piano can get very loud, depending on how it's played. If the mic is to be placed close to the strings, that's a recipe for mic and mic preamp overload, so you have to choose your weapons accordingly.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Many people are indifferent to how well an instrument is recorded. But also, on YouTube, it's all about likes and shares. Sound quality is not a reason why someone likes a recording. "Pyrotechnics" get likes. Apparently doing something flashy gets likes and shares.

But, as others have said, pianos have one of the biggest frequency ranges and can be astonishingly loud. The most fascinating thing about pianos is the decay! After a loud strike, the different harmonics don't all fade in unison! A really good system is better at demonstrating this rich decay behaviour than a poor one. If you are doing listening tests, voices are good, but piano decay is also good.

 

[tomtoo]

There is a lot of distourted recordings on youtube. Not only pianos. I think with piano its just more easy to hear.
I wonder if people just want to be as loud as possible in there uploads or if there is another problem?

 

[amirm]

The other surprising thing is that the content owner is fine with it!

 

[Sokel]

Poor pianos...
If someone has the cash ( about 100K) to add to a truly hi-end system that's my advice:

Steinway Spirio Player Pianos | Steinway & Sons - Steinway & Sons

Steinway Spirio player pianos are high-resolution self-playing pianos that bring the world’s finest artistry and engineering to your home or performance hall.

www.steinway.com

Plays for you,free of any recording and reproducing problem.
Can you think of anything better in terms of natural sound?

 

[tomtoo]

The other surprising thing is that the content owner is fine with it!

Maybe they think its just for YT. Good enough? Not everybody has Amirs fine hearing. And such high standarts for audio.

 

[computer-audiophile]

I am not quite clear what sound quality can be transmitted in Youtoube videos. I see it mostly only as preview quality not for serious listening. Does anyone know more specific?

 

[notsodeadlizard]

Because it is a professional field, that's why.

"It should be pretty obvious that the piano generates a very wide frequency range, starting at around 26Hz (the fundamental frequency of the lowest note) and extending well beyond the 20kHz upper limit of the audible spectrum" ...

Piano Recording

Recording a real piano can feel like a lost art, given the number of high-quality sample libraries around these days. For those times when only the real thing will suffice, here's how to do it justice.

www.soundonsound.com

I don’t think that the binaural recording technique is simpler, there is a sea of its own nuances, starting from the acoustics of the room and ending... (only 25 years of professionalism and you will probably begin to understand that it never ends).

 

[SIY]

My last piano recording was a guy playing a Steinway in Miller Hall on campus here. I used crossed ribbons back about 3 or 4 meters on the side of the piano where the lid was open. I added a 1/2" omni condenser mike over the soundboard and pointed at the lid, mixed in at a very low level just as a slight hint of spice. I was pretty pleased with it.

 

[Ifrit]

It isn’t hard, just most people don’t even think about audio. Or video. Come on, all of the examples are vertical. So intended audience is phone handling. There is some sound, and some picture. It’s enough to tickle their vanity.
“Good” image of last example has more to do with lighting at the demo room of the store than with actual video work.

 

[thecheapseats]

The other surprising thing is that the content owner is fine with it!

the talent were simply, "Ready for their closeup"...

and content owners are about quantity - not quality...

 

[amirm]

I am not quite clear what sound quality can be transmitted in Youtoube videos. I see it mostly only as preview quality not for serious listening. Does anyone know more specific?

You can do so much better relative to what I post in the OP. Here is an example:

 

[restorer-john]

This one seems under water:

Not just underwater, she is playing in a mirror- notice the entire key range is reversed...

(she wears her watch on her left hand, not her right- see the other videos.)

She reminds me of that actress (Katya) in Die Hard with a Vengeance:

 

[tomtoo]

This one seems under water:

Not just underwater, she is playing in a mirror- notice the entire key range is reversed...

(she wears her watch on her left hand, not her right- see the other videos.)

She reminds me of that actress (Katya) in Die Hard with a Vengeance:

View attachment 282745

She is left handed and has a piano for left handed.