Internal Microphone for an upright piano?

Larry Jamieson · From: Walton, NY USA

We are doing live feeds of our church service. We have a Yamaha upright piano that I'd like to mic with one, internal microphone if possible. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Jim Bates · From: Alvin, Texas, USA

Never have done this, but remove the bottom board (above pedals), then try a SM 57 Shure mike on a short stand on
the floor at the high treble end of strings. try a lot of placements to avoid booming/ feedback.

OR,

Remove front of piano with the music shelf, so you can see all the keys, place a floor mike in front on a stand facing keys.

How did they do this on the Grand Ole Opry shows????

Thanx,
Jim
_________________
Jim Bates, Alvin, Texas
Emmons LeGrand,Sho-Bud Super Pro, SB ProII - E13th,C6th on all. Many Resonator guitars

Jim Bates · From: Alvin, Texas, USA

Never have done this, but remove the bottom board (above pedals), then try a SM 57 Shure mike on a short stand on
the floor at the high treble end of strings. try a lot of placements to avoid booming/ feedback.

OR,

Remove front of piano with the music shelf, so you can see all the keys, place a floor mike in front on a stand facing keys.

How did they do this on the Grand Ole Opry shows????

Thanx,
Jim
_________________
Jim Bates, Alvin, Texas
Emmons LeGrand,Sho-Bud Super Pro, SB ProII - E13th,C6th on all. Many Resonator guitars

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

We have an upright piano in our church about 8' away from the organ. We dropped an SM57 about 5' about the organ and another 5' above the piano and they both sound really good with adequate separation between the two. The piano is perfectly balanced on all 88 keys and sounds totally natural.

I know this is not the high tech answer you were looking for but this was the first thing we tried and it sounded so good that we never tried anything more sophisticated.

Jim Bates · From: Alvin, Texas, USA

I agree with Gregg on this. Experiment with it during a rehearsal with voices and organ playing.

Thanx,
Jim
_________________
Jim Bates, Alvin, Texas
Emmons LeGrand,Sho-Bud Super Pro, SB ProII - E13th,C6th on all. Many Resonator guitars

Mike Auman · From: North Texas, USA

The sound guy at my church does a great job with the piano, he says he used a pair of Oktava MK012 with one taped on the high end pointing at the hammers for impact and the other pointed away from the hammers over the low strings for warmth. A step up would be a pair of AKG C414.
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Long-time guitar player, now wrestling with lap steel.

Scott Duckworth · From: Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies

Although not internal, a microphone sitting just behind the piano on the high note side, pointing towards the low note side has always worked for me. I had a mic on a desk stand and did it that way.
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Amateur Radio Operator NA4IT (Extra)
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I may, in fact, be nuts. However, I am screwed onto the right bolt... Jesus!

Larry Jamieson · From: Walton, NY USA

Thanks for some good suggestions. I had not thought about going in from the bottom. I am trying to avoid a mic outside where it can get bumped by anyone walking past the piano.

Michael Brebes · From: Northridge CA

I recommend an Audio Technica ATM350. Nice small condenser mic on a little gooseneck with a clip that can attach easily inside.
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Michael Brebes
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Bill Bassett · From: Papamoa New Zealand

Barcus Berry made a pair of piano transducers that affixed to the harp and soundboard respectively. There was a small preamp that could feed your board or amp. Look it up, haven’t seen a set in years.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

Mics such as the Shure SM57 and SM58 are generally a poor choice for use on pianos or other acoustic instruments, as they are intentionally designed with limited low and high frequency bandwidth and severely peaky mids to control feedback and accentuate the vocal spectrum.

For a piano you want a mic that is sensitive and directional, with extended and reasonably flat frequency response. Many condenser mics such as those mentioned above can do the job if your mixer can provide phantom power without issues.

If you don't have or wish to use phantom power a superb solution might be Sennheiser's flat-package MD906. I'm specifically NOT suggesting the cheaper MD609 many folks use for guitar, which is more like a peaky SM57 in a flat package than the superb but discontinued MD409 of years past that it resembles. If you can lay hands on a properly working used 409 go for it, treasure it, never let it out of your sight. Still, the 906 is a superior microphone for a decent price, and the flat package allows the mic to be positioned outside of and very close to the back of the piano's sound board for best sound and ease of use.

Getting a good sound from an acoustic piano is a challenging art, in addition to Barcus-Berry's rig there are piezoelectric "tape" pickups and other contact systems available that are helpful in high-volume situations, but for grand pianos on the concert stage we most often used one or more AKG 414's or other large-diaphragm condenser mics on big boom stands. Hopefully you don't need to go there...

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

If you have the money a couple DPA 4099’s with piano clips would be amazing. Those little DPA mics are astonishing. I’m sure there are cheaper knock offs of the 4099 that work too.

Personally what would do if I didn’t have the money for something special is use a 57. I would move it around until I found the spot that makes the piano sound okay while the band is playing. It’s not gonna sound good but it should work fine.
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Bob

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