Piano Miking 3 - Kevin Edlin

This is Part 3 in a series of blogs dedicated to my late brother, Frank Jaszcz who passed away earlier this month while fishing in Yellowstone National Park.  My brother was such a fan of Frédéric Chopin.  He would always try to play his favorite piece, the Polonaise in Ab Major, Op. 53, and though he wasn't the greatest pianist I've ever seen, his passion was a joy to watch.  In light of his love of classical piano, this week's blog posts are all about recording piano.  We started with some of our thoughts in Part 1, got opinions from Randy Poole in Part 2, and this is Part 3 with special guest Kevin Edlin.

Kevin is an extraordinary engineer who has done many classical recordings for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra and has done recordings of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess for Decca Records, and the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 on Naxos among many others, in addition to his role as a guitar player and sound designer for his band Seven Cycle Theory.  My Brother would have loved him because he obviously has a genuine love for classical music.  He was kind enough to offer GetYoshed his thoughts on recording classical piano:

Piano Miking 2 - Randy Poole

This is Part II of a blog in tribute to my brother, Frank, who recently passed away while fishing in Yellowstone National Park.  After spending a weekend in Iowa with my family remembering his life.  One of those memories was his love of Frédéric Chopin, so it is in his honor that we wrote our blog on recording classical piano, and in his honor we are posting this follow-up today.

Randy Poole is a good friend of mine, and also a marvelous engineer.  Working for such artists as Take 6, Natalie Grant, Smokie Norful, and Anita Baker, Randy has gained a reputation for quality engineering.

Of course, every engineer will have a slightly different take on mic techniques, choices, and placements, so we asked Randy for his thoughts on miking a piano.  Here's what he said:

Classical Piano

My brother, Frank, recently passed away in Yellowstone National Park. A biology professor for many years, he retired this year at age 65 and was doing what he loved most… fishing. I spent the weekend in Iowa with my family, celebrating the life he lived and the lives he touched. So many memories were re-lived, and one of my favorites was his love for Frédéric Chopin. I’ve seen him attempt to play the “Heroic” Polonaise in A Flat Major countless times, a piece he truly loved. It is that memory that inspired this blog entry on the recording of classical piano.

The Beats: LM-1 and LinnDrum

I was trying to remember exactly when I saw my first LM-1.. I remember seeing it on a session that I was setting up for as an assistant, but I couldn't recall the artist.  I checked in with one of my engineering mentors, Greg Reilly, at the Disc ltd. in Detroit. Greg started out at Holland Dozier Holland when he was barely out of high school. He has an R&B history that is longer than the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.  Anyway.. He informed me that the first sessions that were done with Linn drum at that time were with a group called One Way.  They were a local Detroit R&B band that came into the studio in late ’79 or ‘80..  I believe at this time there were only 40 of these LM-1s in existence.

Once the more compact LinnDrum was actually released we saw them more frequently and their popularity peaked around ‘84 when Prince did "When Dove's Cry."  Leave it to Prince to eliminate the bass line and still get a hit!

My early experiences with the Linn were with a group called RJ's Latest Arrival..

The Beats: Roland TR-808

Twenty -five years ago the powers that be said hip-hop and rap music was a fad and it wouldn't last. Seemed to me at the time that I was witnessing the beginning of a new music era that would last a lifetime. There was too much passion for it to go away! Whether you are into the music or not, the one thing that we can all agree on is that the sounds that were used permeated all music including Rock and even Country. The basic sounds that were used then and used now come from the same sources. I remember the first time I saw an 808 drum machine. Dave McMurray, saxophonist for Was Not Was had just purchased it and was programming up a storm... It was like he had taken up a new percussion instrument and he was becoming intimate with every nuance of the piece. Up until this time musicians who had a penchant for rhythm but didn't play drums had to wait until they could get with a drummer and percussionist to work out the rhythm.

Now, one guy could sit at home and come up with the whole concept of the song with new and interesting sounds to boot! On first hearing those sounds it was a little unnerving because we had all been listening to natural sounds. What were we to do with such a thing? Why is it that the bass drum is sounding like an oscillator? The snare sounds like a toy drum!? Well, it soon became apparent that once a drum machine was laid out it inspired all sorts if sonic creativity....