Recording live, acoustic piano has never been easy for the would-be music archivist. Since the dawn of sound recording -and given the constraints of budget and available equipment- the instrument's range of tone, dynamics -and unique sustain- have been the source of many a challenge to even experienced music technicians.
The arrival in recent times of affordable, consumer-oriented digital a/v kit has helped greatly. The enthusiast now has available tools capable of results that compare favourably with the quality of professional offerings. Its a great opportunity for the competent amateur to be a part of the heritage process by ensuring something of today's young talent will be set down to be enjoyed in future years.
Nevertheless, making good recordings of, even the best-sounding domestic piano can still be difficult. Big, natural piano sound is not easy to record in the average home. That's why, when the opportunity to play and capture the sound of a sumptuous grand' under concert conditions arises, no self-respecting audiophile (or aspiring performer) should pass it up.
Residents of Flintshire are fortunate. As befits Our Lovely Land, education Principals at the County Council -along with school heads and support staff- have an enlightened attitude to good, live music; especially when it serves to showcase individual schools -and the talent of youngsters performing for the pleasure of a critical, local audience.
The social worth of this generous outreach to our communities cannot be overstated.
My local High School at Hawarden has a consistent record of sharing school facilities. Perhaps best known for vocational courses at evening classes and enviable all-weather sports pitches (youth training ground for of today's fine professional players) the campus also houses an impressive assembly/performance hall. Its acoustics coupled with a handsome grand piano, are without doubt, performance-inspiring and and excellence just made to be shared.
What you are hearing in this video example is testimony to all concerned: a great venue, a piano tuned to perfection -and young performers, tense but well rehearsed and ready to give their best shot.
These clips are extracts from my own 2011 recordings of an evening concert staged at the school. The performers were all pupils of prize-winning local piano teacher Mrs Elaine Sleeman. For reference and study, recordings of the complete concert have been made available to all participants as a 2 DVD set.
Special thanks are due to Head-of -School, Mr Rodger Davies and his hard-working staff for going the extra mile and supporting this invaluable community activity.
The arrival in recent times of affordable, consumer-oriented digital a/v kit has helped greatly. The enthusiast now has available tools capable of results that compare favourably with the quality of professional offerings. Its a great opportunity for the competent amateur to be a part of the heritage process by ensuring something of today's young talent will be set down to be enjoyed in future years.
Nevertheless, making good recordings of, even the best-sounding domestic piano can still be difficult. Big, natural piano sound is not easy to record in the average home. That's why, when the opportunity to play and capture the sound of a sumptuous grand' under concert conditions arises, no self-respecting audiophile (or aspiring performer) should pass it up.
Residents of Flintshire are fortunate. As befits Our Lovely Land, education Principals at the County Council -along with school heads and support staff- have an enlightened attitude to good, live music; especially when it serves to showcase individual schools -and the talent of youngsters performing for the pleasure of a critical, local audience.
The social worth of this generous outreach to our communities cannot be overstated.
My local High School at Hawarden has a consistent record of sharing school facilities. Perhaps best known for vocational courses at evening classes and enviable all-weather sports pitches (youth training ground for of today's fine professional players) the campus also houses an impressive assembly/performance hall. Its acoustics coupled with a handsome grand piano, are without doubt, performance-inspiring and and excellence just made to be shared.
What you are hearing in this video example is testimony to all concerned: a great venue, a piano tuned to perfection -and young performers, tense but well rehearsed and ready to give their best shot.
These clips are extracts from my own 2011 recordings of an evening concert staged at the school. The performers were all pupils of prize-winning local piano teacher Mrs Elaine Sleeman. For reference and study, recordings of the complete concert have been made available to all participants as a 2 DVD set.
Special thanks are due to Head-of -School, Mr Rodger Davies and his hard-working staff for going the extra mile and supporting this invaluable community activity.
Technical notes:
The piano at Hawarden High School is a full-size Bösendorfer. It was well maintained, in great-tune -and well worthy of my best efforts! The microphone I used was a Beatles era, top-quality AKG dynamic. I wanted an intimate sound free of excessive room colouration so I mounted it on a short boom stand with the head close inside the open lid. The distance from the performers to my mixing station necessitated a very long XLR mic cable. The mixer outputted to a palm-sized Edirol R09 digital recorder. The audio was saved in uncompressed WAV format with manual set levels continuously monitored during performance on closed headphones and adjusted at the mixer. Most importantly, the morning rehearsals gave me a one-off opportunity to get a feel for the performance dynamics and set the critical audio "peaks". Even so, a couple of times during the evening, the "headroom" I had allowed was pushed to the limit.
Three camcorders were used throughout the concert; Main Cam#1 was on a rigid elevated mount and used for default/general shots, Cam#2 was a compact, self-contained unit, low-mounted about 1 metre from the keyboard. Cam#3 A standard size prosumer, hand-held -used for spontaneous cut-aways/closeups.
The on-board camcorder mic audio was of course only suitable for reference and synching during the subsequent edit.
The piano at Hawarden High School is a full-size Bösendorfer. It was well maintained, in great-tune -and well worthy of my best efforts! The microphone I used was a Beatles era, top-quality AKG dynamic. I wanted an intimate sound free of excessive room colouration so I mounted it on a short boom stand with the head close inside the open lid. The distance from the performers to my mixing station necessitated a very long XLR mic cable. The mixer outputted to a palm-sized Edirol R09 digital recorder. The audio was saved in uncompressed WAV format with manual set levels continuously monitored during performance on closed headphones and adjusted at the mixer. Most importantly, the morning rehearsals gave me a one-off opportunity to get a feel for the performance dynamics and set the critical audio "peaks". Even so, a couple of times during the evening, the "headroom" I had allowed was pushed to the limit.
Three camcorders were used throughout the concert; Main Cam#1 was on a rigid elevated mount and used for default/general shots, Cam#2 was a compact, self-contained unit, low-mounted about 1 metre from the keyboard. Cam#3 A standard size prosumer, hand-held -used for spontaneous cut-aways/closeups.
The on-board camcorder mic audio was of course only suitable for reference and synching during the subsequent edit.
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