In Summary
Engineers can get release-quality keyboard recordings even when faced with an instrument for the first time. Armed with a pair of ears and very little equipment, great results can be had with either a pair of mics, DIs, or even less.
Going Deeper
Along with guitar, keyboard instruments are to be found across a whole of range of different styles. When they do appear their musical reach could be said to be broader than their guitar-shaped bandmates, in styles spanning both centuries and continents. In common with other potentially large instruments such as a drum kit, newer engineers could be forgiven for wondering how they could ever get one of these beasts into the DAW, but the good news is that it can be done with some common sense and an emphasis on listening.
Recording
Keep It Simple, Stupid
Keeping it simple wherever possible can go along way. As with any instrument it can be fun to have loads of mic options in the mix, but going through lots of arbitrary ‘bonus’ mics is not as useful as having a fewer well-targeted ones. Extra effort in record might be best spent on eliminating things like excess spill, or unwanted creaks, squeaks and thumps when capturing any big thing made out of wood. At the other end of the scale, if there is a great virtual instrument to hand don’t make life difficult by instead recording that basket-case upright piano just because it’s there....
Synths And Stage Instruments
Anything with a line out on it can be treated as a synth or stage instrument, including the kind of multipurpose piano/synth/organ/workstation type instruments that often come in black, silver, or red. The first port of call here is the DI box. While these exist to balance and convert instrument and line level signals for console mic inputs, their practical advantage is to add nice long XLRs for running back to distant gear. Although DIs are essential in many mic-less recordings, using the interface’s line or Hi Z inputs over short runs shouldn’t be overlooked.
The DI affords the ability to re-amp sounds, often later during the mix. This can be for overtly ‘amped’ flavours, or to add the unbeatable sound of moving air for realism. Re-amping synth organs, or electric piano sounds especially can quickly inject life when re-fired through real speakers into the room.
Running the instrument with its output about three-quarters up usually strikes the best balance between noise and not clipping the output of the instrument itself. Leaving lots of headroom in the recording is also a good idea. Different keyboard patches’ levels can vary wildly.
One thing that can really help is recording the MIDI, if available. The artist might be quite receptive to using a superior sound from the DAW, and this can save the day if you miss anything to a dead jack lead, and of course it offers a get out of jail free card if a bum note is ruining an otherwise good take…
Don’t expect all synths and stages to have standard connections. Some pianos (and quite a few toy instruments) have minijacks or RCA’s. Any engineer who has been forced to mic a digital piano’s built-in speakers will know the sense of defeat when that happens (yes, I’m over it now in case you’re wondering…)
Electro-Mechanical Keyboards
Going back in time, there was a whole world of electro-mechanical keyboard instruments among which the electric piano and Hammond organ are perhaps the best known. These are great to record not least because of their soulful organic sounds, but also the wide range of ways with which to capture them.
Electric Pianos, Clavinets, Mellotrons
Starting with electric pianos, these almost always have an instrument output on a jack socket, which was originally intended to go to an amp/cab combo or live system. A DI box can be used to grab the sound but also to link out to any amplification. Amps and cabs can be an intrinsic part of their sound. If the instrument arrives with this combo, any mic choices and positions that work for guitar cabs are a good place to start. Other cab mic technique applies such as listening for the best sounding driver and experimenting with miking dead centre for brightness versus nearer the edge for a darker tone.
It’s been said that adding a mic to record the unamplified electric piano tines can add attack or brilliance with pronounced transients to counter the ‘splattier’ sound from the amp. This technique would almost certainly need some hi pass filtering to insure against the loud, thumping keybeds on these instruments. Other electro-mechanical keyboards such as Clavinets and Mellotrons can be treated in much the same way, although in the case of the latter (to paraphrase Tony Visconti) the only truly reliable vintage Mellotron for the studio is a sampled one!
Organs
Pipe organs aside, virtually all transistor organs have an output that can be used for amping or DI’ing in the same way as for electric piano. Tonewheel Hammond organs can occasionally arrive with a modified direct output or even built in speakers (such as on the A100 cousin of the B3/C3), but most of the time the sound will come from its Leslie cabinet.
Recording the Leslie can be mono or stereo, working closer for a drier, choppier sound for further out a mellower rendering. Top and bottom rotors can have their own mics, and for stereo placements anywhere along 90 degree or so horizontal arc can avoid giving the impression of double-speed rotations. The top and bottom rotate in opposite directions so the mix can reflect this.
You can read more about capturing Hammond organ and exploring sounds here in our article.
Pianos
For some, capturing acoustic piano presents the ultimate recording challenge, but ultimately if the instrument and the playing are up to scratch, getting a good recording is doable even if you’re new to it. The difference between a grand and an upright is less pronounced than some think, and common recording principles apply. The grand’s layout is there for all to see, whereas uprights can be thought of as like a grand but with the tail pointing towards the ceiling.
Job One is tracking down and reducing any excess mechanical noise from pedals, seats, or sticky hammers or buzzy strings. Anything involving the player’s feet or seat can be fixed with a drop of oil or a car matt/carpet under tapping feet; anything inside the instrument could could get worse quickly unless you know what you’re doing in there. If spill is a problem with everyone in one room, consider building (or draping over) some kind of tent made from heavy blankets or similar with the piano on a half-stick.
Condenser mics are a common choice for piano but they’re not compulsory. Piano recordings do not need to be made in stereo, and often using a single mic can give a laser-etched mono image that can cut through a busy mix.
For sparser arrangements, or solo piano, stereo can be hard to beat. Capturing two channels is a huge subject, however there are some basic considerations regarding the size of the instrument and the aim of the recording. Whether using spaced, coincident, or hybrid techniques, the physical width of the piano means that spacings and/or angling can often be closer or narrower than some might think. New engineers can find this counterintuitive (big thing, go wide, right?) but the reasons to go the other way are related to the SRA of the array. You can read more in Julian’s primer on stereo here.
Closer mic placements can begin under the lid 30-50cm (12-18 inches) over the strings (too close will return ‘hotspots’ in the register). Pointing or moving towards the hammers will give a brighter sound with more attack, with the opposite towards the tail. The same principle applies for upright piano, however looking over the player’s shoulder with the panels off can be impractical. A position looking down into the tail will sound mellower (sometimes good) and at least the mics won’t get knocked about…
Cardioids can be used to reject lid reflections and/or band spill. In the right place, combined with the lid sound omnis can render the most natural sound. Classical placements frequently sit just outside the instrument in the curve of the piano looking in, as shown above. The classic Decca technique sees a tail pair some distance away from the end of the piano, around head height looking down the strings and aimed at the hammers.
When taking the recording to the piano in locations such as churches, subsonic traffic or heating/ventilation noise can sometimes be seen on the meters. This is easily fixed using some HPF under the bottom register. Any breathing noises can be eased with mic pattern, position, and/or angling.
Some pianos have contact mics or pickup systems installed. The best of these can sound pretty good and are well worth recording if spare inputs allow.
Mixing
As with any source, getting the right sound into the mics is the biggest consideration. From there, much of how the keyboards are treated in the mix is down to the style and the arrangement.
Equalization
In many arrangements, any keyboard, regardless of the style can compete with the bass instruments playing in the same register. For this, the cure on keyboards is simple: high pass filtering. This gets the keyboard ‘over’ the bass and vice versa, and the left hand will still be audible (perhaps even clearer than before). This can sound extreme in solo, but applying the cut in context can see turnovers of up to 250Hz (or so) retaining a natural sound.
Parametric curves can be used to scoop out problem resonances, induce special effects, or bring out the bark of an electric piano for example. Shelves or Tilts can help control the amount of weight or sparkle.
Dynamics
Solo piano recordings shouldn’t need any noticeable processing other than the odd fader ride or gentle compression (if any). In other situations dynamics processing usually means compression or sometimes limiting. That said, gating or expansion is a low tech way to save the day when fixing low level electronic noise or buzzes without undertaking a massive strip-out.
Compressing very dynamic synths and stage instruments slightly can help a lot to sit things in the mix, however if MIDI is doing the playing consider whether it’s the velocities instead that need reigning in. Beyond level control, compression can provide Bacharach-style piano effects; compressing organs doesn’t usually achieve much other than to fight any carefully-chosen volume swells from the player.
Anything Else?
Although singer-songwriters will often want to do vocal overdubs to concentrate on their performance, recording a vocal and piano performance in one pass can be unbeatable. For some artists the vocal and the piano together are the performance, and capturing them together is always going to be the best way.
Vocal and keys DI recordings present few challenges other than any headphone spill; although it’s possible to do the odd vocal drop-in, patching the keys with the vocal over the top could be much harder. Better to go again if the aim is to save time - it’s often quicker.
Piano mics can be aimed to keep the singer in their nulls, and vice-versa. Figure-of-eight patterns on the piano can excel at this. The other option is to use figure-of-eight or omnis for the purism of capturing voice and piano with the same mics. Mistakes can be fixed with drop-ins across all tracks with generous pre-roll, though again it’s usually better to do another take if possible.
While recording a synth or electric piano can be as simple as plugging into a DI, walking up to a Hammond or grand piano for the first time can be a chin-stroke moment for newbies. DI’ing any unfamiliar instrument can just be a case of finding the output and working as for any other instrument, however when mics are involved the engineer can apply a bit of universal technique. Not working too close and capturing as a whole is always a good starting point until the room and/or noise and/or spill come along to spoil the party!
Whatever the recording situation, the good news is that a bit of listening a pragmatism can go a long way.
A Word About This Article
As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.
Main photo by Marc Fanelli-Isla on Unsplash
Console photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash
Electric grand photo by Jaclyn Clark on Unsplash