Original subtitles

one of my favorite things about our

church is congregational singing to me

there's nothing more powerful more

moving than when we are in corporate

worship singing praises to our Heavenly

Father there's times where we can

Thunder out over 90 decibels of volume

during our congregational singing

in today's sound advice I'm going to

show you the centerpiece of our music

ministry the grand piano now you've

heard me say before live PA is the

hardest type of sound of master and if

we're thundering out at 90 plus decibels

that means our pitch and tempo reference

the grand piano has to be above that

ambient noise floor I'm going to show

you why and how I mic the grand piano

[Music]

I'm not a classically trained singer or

any type of trained singer and if you

heard me sing he would realize that I

know what I'm talking about I'm not a

singer okay

that didn't quite go as smooth as I

thought well try it again if you've

heard me sing you would realize I'm not

a professional singer and actually I

should stick with running the sound one

of the things that's really important

during congregational singing is hearing

your pitch and tempo reference now if I

can hear the note I can reproduce it

somewhat but if I can't hear the note

I'm lost as a goose so I'm going to show

you how I mic the grand piano and why I

mic the grand piano the way I do okay

here is our grand piano this is

eighty-eight keys of bliss you're not

going to find any other instrument in

the church that has the same frequency

response as a grand piano

except our organ the low end is 27 to 29

Hertz and the upper end is a little over

four thousand forty one seventy five

forty one ninety five just depends on

the tuning that has a wide frequency

response that's a tall task to be able

to reproduce that faithfully and then

amplify it into the congregation so the

question is how do we get all of those

frequencies contained zipped up to the

mixing console and then amplify it

through the speakers back to ear drums I

use the crown pzm 30d it's a pressure

zone microphone condenser so it requires

phantom power now your typical

microphones going to pick up sound waves

the pzm is a pressure zone microphone it

picks up the difference in air pressure

also the PCM works really well on a big

flat surface let me show you

pzm is attached here this plane also

helps pick up sound while it's vibrating

and then it comes back into this plate

and then the pressure zone element right

there helps us amplify the sounds the

bigger the plane or the bigger the zone

that this is sitting on the more low

frequencies we're going to amplify also

I use two microphones for stereo

application this is my left microphone

and then this is my right microphone

anytime we use to mark

phones we need to be careful that we

don't get phasing another term would use

is called comb filtering I have our main

microphone right over the dampers which

is right above the hammers the hammer is

what strikes the string and then the

damper is what helps control the tones

and then the overtones the piano is a

percussion instrument and so I'm using

the this microphone right here to help

pick up that percussive attack that is

what gives me the tempo the driving

downbeat if we can hear that downbeat

the driving downbeat we're gonna stay in

time with the singing this microphone is

going to be more over the bridge of the

piano the bridge is where we're gonna

hear the sounds most efficiently because

that's where the strings come in direct

contact with the wood one of the hardest

things to tell people is where and how

to mic the grand piano every instrument

is going to be different every room is

going to be different so it takes a

little bit to figure out this is the pzm

30d what I do is I'll put a piece of

velcro on the back and then I'll put a

velcro strip on the bottom side of the

lid and then that allows me to mount the

microphone and move it up and down the

hammer area and upper up and down over

the bridge that gives me the ability to

put a mic on play with it if it works

great if not move it I need to make sure

that I'm going to get the fidelity out

of the instrument and into the

congregation now when we're pushing 90

plus decibels during our congregational

singing I can't rely on the low end of

the piano to get out into the room it

just muddies up the sound I need it to

be clear so sometimes I'll brighten the

EQ on the mixing console between two

three and four thousand Hertz that's

where we hear most efficiently and if I

can brighten the piano up or mic the

piano over the strings kind of the upper

mid register the piano that's going to

help with intelligibility and getting

sound into the congregation that means

we can still hear the piano without

having just a blast everybody's eardrums

out there's a fine balance when you get

that loud during your singing there's a

fine balance between loud and too loud

there's a men's meeting in Stillwater

the men's of

we've clocked the congregational singing

at over a hundred and four decibels

that's one piano and 17 to 1,800 men

crammed into a barn that's loud and

still at that volume they need to hear

pitch and tempo a couple things to note

about the grand piano I like him

oriented where the lids facing out to

the congregation this lid is going to

help amplify the sound and push it out

into the room if that's pushing out into

the room that's less that I have to

amplify another reason why I like the

PCMs you hardly see them and in

broadcast it's nice to have a

transparent look the lid can be a little

controversial especially with piano

players one of the beauties of the grand

piano is this lid and how high it arches

open but from a sound man's perspective

it's better to have that lid lower or

changing the angle of how that sound

comes out of the piano so if you can

imagine or squashing the angle down and

we have more volume to push further also

we can get the piano mics closer to the

strings which gives us a proximity

effect a proximity effect is going to

give us better attack and better

frequency response a couple years ago I

had a really neat conversation with Joe

miser I always believed that the sound

originated from the strings and then

that's what we heard was the strings

vibrating but Joe shared with me the

sound does originate with the strings

but then the vibration is transferred

through the bridge to the wood and this

whole instrument is vibrating and that's

what gives the grand piano its unique

sound that's one of the main reasons why

you can never find a keyboard that

sounds exactly like a grand piano and

then this this is so amazing to me this

piano the EQ very rarely ever changes

but the style of the piano changes

drastically based upon who's playing it

it's an instrument it's an extension of

their personality their style their

interpretation of the piece that they're

playing so let's talk with Joe find a

little bit more about the piano and how

it works so the piano is really a really

complex instrument when it comes to the

sound that's produced because you know

it may seem that the strings are the

most important part and while they

initiate the sound they're not what

amplifies the sound so if it were only

the strings you'd have a very thin tinny

sound but a piano has a soundboard

so the entire instrument really can be

likened to a giant speaker cabinet and

even other parts of the instrument also

vibrate in sympathy with everything else

that's going on the soundboard is a

giant piece of wood thin piece of wood

stiff piece of wood but the strings pass

over what's called the bridge and those

strings as they couple with the bridge

are then coupled to the soundboard so

you might liken the bridge to the voice

coil of a speaker that's moving a

speaker cone so as those strings vibrate

they cause the soundboard to vibrate and

then that sound is transferred both

under and out the top of the instrument

the original intent with a piano was

that it would be a large powerful enough

instrument to fill a well-designed

performance hall with its own natural

sound there would be those people out

there that would say that the piano can

only be properly miked

by distant miking because you have sound

coming from so many places on the

instrument so those people would say you

have to distant mic to capture all of

that properly but we know that in live

audio that's really not going to work

well because primary reason feedback if

we're trying to distant mic this

instrument we're just not going to be

able to get a loud enough or have enough

of the percussive attack to really fill

a room well and cut through during

congregational singing I've seen some

things along the way

that would be maybe mistakes in mic in a

piano one of the things that really made

me laugh at one point was seeing a piano

where somebody had taken a microphone

wrapped foam around it and shoved it in

one of the sound holes that's a big

mistake

you're not gonna get anything resembling

a normal sound out of the instrument

from do

that another thing I've seen in the past

was where a boundary microphone was laid

under the piano on the floor so we're

now about two and a half to three feet

from the underside of the piano it was a

very muddy unclear sound couldn't get

enough volume from it again feedback was

a problem so that's gonna be some issues

you're gonna face in miking this

instrument the woods are chosen very

carefully in building a piano and each

manufacturer would have a little bit

different choices on some of the

materials but they're gonna choose woods

that are going to accomplish their

purpose with regard to tone of the

instrument that's not the only thing

that plays into the tone I was recently

reading an article about a group of men

that went to pick a new piano for their

venue so they went to a showroom to look

at three different pianos now the catch

was they were looking at all three being

the same model of piano from the same

manufacturer so why would they need to

pick amongst three of those to decide

which one because one instrument can pre

be prepared multiple ways to sound

different ways so they tried all three

of these pianos each piano had been

prepared by a different piano technician

and so that made each instrument have

its own unique sound so that made for a

difficult choice for them because all

three sounded good but they each had a

unique character to them so the action

unit in a piano is a very precise point

on the instrument and it responds very

differently to the input that it's given

so whereas I may play one way and get a

specific sound out of the instrument

from that another person may have a

different type of attack to the notes

they may play softer they may be timid

and there can be many many variations on

how the notes are played piano teachers

spend much time teaching students

different ways to work with the keys of

the piano because it is so risk

on civ - what's done with it now grab

your favorite pair headphones we're

gonna do a listening demonstration

you're gonna hear exactly what goes to

our broadcast mix we're gonna start out

with our main or left PCM microphone

this mic has been on this piano for over

20 years you'll hear that in mono then

we'll add the right pzm mic in mono

unprocessed then we'll pan left and

right and then we'll add the processing

you'll hear exactly what goes to our

broadcast mix using the same mics that

we use for our house mix

[Music]

thanks for taking your time to watch

this video but please don't walk away

saying all of that is great information

if or if only if I had that or that's

only in a big church yes it is specific

to a grand piano but there's a lot of

principles that I talked about that will

transcend instruments and techniques the

piano will be the hardest instrument

that most of us will ever mike so it's

really important that we understand how

it radiates sound and what we're wanting

to get out of it miking techniques is

equally important we would never ask a

vocalist to hold their microphone at

their waistline same thing with the

piano it's an instrument we need to

learn how a radiates sound what we're

trying to get out of it and what we're

trying to accomplish with that sound the

angle of the lid is extremely important

just like if you take your thumb and put

it over the end of a garden hose you're

going to restrict the water flow so it's

gonna push the water further it's the

same thing with the piano if we restrict

the amount of room that sound has to

vibrated it's gonna project the sound

further pitch and tempo our King in

congregational singing if we can't hear

either it's going to be a train wreck in

our church service you'll hear the

cadence from the song leader and I make

sure the song leader is heard in the

instruments monitors but in the house

you're primarily going to hear the

percussive drive of the piano most

people will default to singing to the

level of the piano or your main

instrument so if we raise that overall

volume of the piano we're gonna help

raise the volume of the congregational

singing the melody is extremely

important in singing most people will

recognize the melody of the tune make

sure that your congregation can hear the

melody of the tune remember we hear

efficiently around two three to four

thousand Hertz so if you're having a

hard time punching that melody through

the coat of the room try playing that

melody in octaves or raise the melody

one octave

and finally it will take time to

understand your piano I've been making

this piano for 19 years I'm still

challenged by it

don't be afraid to move things around to

experiment but don't do that right

before church service in the notes

you'll find a link to excellence in

church music by Kevin Higginbotham

that's the guy that sits at this piano

every service and thunders out amazing

music I hope you'll take some time to

follow his blog videos I'm Jude and this

is my sound advice

[Music]