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There is the good quality piano recording, except the <100Hz noise:

enter image description here

There is my recording:

enter image description here

The recording have a list of problems:

  • 20k noise;
  • 2.5k-3k noise;
  • 1-1k noise;
  • <100 noise;
  • small signal/noise contrast in silent zone;
  • 50-60 low freq. impulses;
  • thick (blurry) piano sounds;

I looking the way to illuminate this problems without post-production process. Unfortunately for me, the post production wipes the silent piano sounds and makes the sound more like synthesizer, then grand piano.

I will be happy to hear any recommendations to improve the hardware with short explanation how each element of new equipment will help me.

Current equipment are Marantz PMD660 + Alesis MultyMix4USB + pair of Behringer C-4

UPD:

Noisy notes in my recording (zoomed):

enter image description here

Clear piano notes should look like (zoomed):

enter image description here

UPD:

There is example of recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1YEM-11PerqY2hTRjNvU21DOEk/view?usp=sharing

As you can see (listen), the sound is not bright and sometimes sounds pretty "flat"

Mic setup:

enter image description here

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  • Which program is being used? It will help if I know which program it is.
    – Daniel
    Commented Jan 31, 2015 at 23:47
  • I made screenshot from iZotope RX³
    – Ruben Kazumov
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 0:05
  • You need to post a sample really. Audio determination is difficult from a picture! There are so many different things each issue could be.
    – David Boshton
    Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 12:58
  • Please post information about your mic technique (location of mic, distance from the piano, etc.).
    – user9881
    Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 0:57
  • Guys, I added the sound example and the mic setup image.
    – Ruben Kazumov
    Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 3:36

1 Answer 1

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Its probably multiple issues that your dealing with. The gear your using is fairly low-mid end and probably doesn't have the frequency response and tone of more expensive or just better suited mics. It could be that your mic placement could be better as well. If your recording in an untreated or improperly treated room that would be another issue where you get standing waves at certain frequencies ad the room itself might not be properly isolated from the outside world.

I think the most important thing though is that you cant base what your doing purely on a waveform and spectrogram. A good or bad recording isn't able to be determined from that. Its all much more complicated.

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2
  • do I understand right, from your point of view, I should just replace mixer to Behringer X32, recorder to Sound Devices 788T, use earthworks pm40, isolated room and everything will be perfectly excellent? Ok, thank you! Can you explain, how the new mixer, recorder and mic will improve "the picture" of the intercepted audio signal?
    – Ruben Kazumov
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 1:18
  • I cant really say that everything is going to "perfectly excellent" because at some point it comes down to the piano, the player and the engineer. You could still use a computer audio interface as the recorder but ideally you'd want something that could go to 24bit/96K if your trying to record pristine solo piano. You might not need a mixer in your setup.The earthworks or barcus berry setups would surely improve your sound but they cost 30X more than the Behringer. Also a treated and Isolated room is a considerable expense that usually only a studio could afford.
    – coaxmw
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 1:59

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