Grand Piano Mic?

[geezlix]

Hi everyone. I'm in need of purchasing a mic for our grand piano. Currently our piano sits below the house speakers, so would need a mic that would just pick up the piano and nothing more. Ideally, it would be great to have something that could stay permanently mounted inside the piano. Any suggestions?

[Mustangnaz]

We use the Barcus Berry piano pickup and have had good success with it. You will need to play around with it's placement to find your piano's sweet spot, but once you get it setup and EQed in you can get a great sound with no feedback.

[waynehoskins]

There are many solutions, but it's largely dependent on the context of the piano. There was a thread in recent weeks about miking a piano that was adjacent to a horn section, and you could also have a grand piano played alone, in the context of rock-and-roll, etc.

Needed acoustic gain, isolation, frequency response, and so on vary with scenarios. Could you tell us more? Style of music, instrumentation, etc.

[geezlix]

Sure. Thanks guys.

Basically the context the piano is used is during our worship services. The piano is played with the lid open, and the top of the piano is about 8 feet directly below the main house speakers. The style would be contemporary with vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and drums.

[cmchamp]

lid's off to avoid reflecting light?
If you were to put the lid on, I'd recommend:
a pair of Crown PCC160's taped to the lid just tail side of the dampers near middle-C pointed outward
a pair of DPA miniatures
pair of ATM450's

Lid off - you'll have to go with a Barcus Berry type inductive pickup.

[waynehoskins]

Contemporary means so many different things. I suppose the core of my question is whether the music is piano-driven or guitar-driven. I'm guessing it's going to be piano-driven in your case.

With the lid open, I'd be worried about not only isolation and GBF but also stage volume of the piano itself. Is closing the lid an option? I'd agree with Cory's assessment of the mic/pickup options, but I'll add another option, which to my mind is the best option in amplified rock-and-roll. I saw video of a Sara Bareilles tour recently, where she played a synth baby grand. It looks exactly like a real piano, and it sounds like one, but it's an electronic synth with a control panel above the keyboard. For rock and roll, for me there's no other option but synth.

[bbrunskill]

If the lid is closed, your life will become much easier . . .

I'm thinking about getting a pair of Naint XS ommidirectional condensers, they will mount inside our upright piano, and be used occasionally for things like violins. And they are affordable, at $39 each!

If you can close the lid, something like that could work for you too.

[bobbycito]

whats the budget for mics?
i have like a pair of
(2) Shure KSM 32 mounted inside with lid closed
(2) AKG 414
(2) Beta 91 or like boundry mic mounted to the lid
also where are thr drums to the piano?
getting a live piano to sound good in a pa on a loud stage is hard if not impossible.
how are your piano players do they play soft or hard? (we have a wide range between players and this will alos effect GBF.

[geezlix]

Thanks for the replies everyone. To provide a little more information:

- The drums are on the opposite side of the stage, about 20 feet away. However, the main house speakers are directly above the piano.

- We keep the lid closed

- Budget? Well, probably somewhere in the $200-300 range.

Thanks!