Recording Vintage Electric Piano

[Gareth*]

I was wondering if anyone had a realy good way to record electic pianos. What mic do you use, do you go direct? It seems like when I've gone direct it sounds bad and I'm have trouble getting a good sound with my mics.

[smopo24]

do you mean like a fender rhodes? amp it, or use a good di box; or find out what technique queen used on "you're my best friend."

[Gareth*]

It's a wurlitzer 200a. I tried using a sans amp direct drive and it sounded horible. It sounds good out of an amp but I haven't found a mic that captures the sound fully.

[smopo24]

Originally Posted by Gareth*

It's a wurlitzer 200a. I tried using a sans amp direct drive and it sounded horible. It sounds good out of an amp but I haven't found a mic that captures the sound fully.

then try 2 mics; a 57 aimed a little off-axis and another.....maybe a 421, a royer ribbon mic, a c 414, a u87; whatever else you think may be missing from the one mic you are using. choose one to compliment it and mix/eq accordingly!

[GearJunkie]

i got free time at a studio one night, so we ran a rhodes through a blackface twin reverb and put a U47 in front of it. sounded SO awesome. put light tremelo on it.

so yeah... um... go buy a U47.

[dagosto]

What kind of amp is it and how are you miking it. My suggestion is that if your room sounds alight and bleed isn't an issue try an amient mic. Also nix the sansamp. Plug it yight into the recorder using an instrument input or passive DI. Light chorus and reveb might also help in the mix.

[GearJunkie]

Originally Posted by dagosto

What kind of amp is it and how are you miking it. My suggestion is that if your room sounds alight and bleed isn't an issue try an amient mic. Also nix the sansamp. Plug it yight into the recorder using an instrument input or passive DI. Light chorus and reveb might also help in the mix.

F that. Go buy a $2500 twin reverb and a $4000 U47.

[Nubus]

If you want a little bit of a dirty sound here's a suggestion. If you've got a guitar amp handy plug in there and take a direct off of the speaker out. Remember to reconnect the speaker through the DI. This would get you the sound of the amp, but you get a fuller bandwidth than what the speaker would produce. If it is dominating the mix too much, try mic'ing the speaker instead.

[smopo24]

Originally Posted by Nubus

If you want a little bit of a dirty sound here's a suggestion. If you've got a guitar amp handy plug in there and take a direct off of the speaker out. Remember to reconnect the speaker through the DI. This would get you the sound of the amp, but you get a fuller bandwidth than what the speaker would produce. If it is dominating the mix too much, try mic'ing the speaker instead.

or you can do both those (mic and di) and just blend to taste. at least you will have some more options!

[Gareth*]

The DI on my Wurly sounds pretty bad for some reason when I record. I tried using differant mics on a couple differant amps and the best sound was a groove tube condensor and a beta 52 on my bass amp. I like the sound of rhodes and wurlies going through bass better then guitar amps. It's more mellow and.... bassy!