Italian 50's Songs

 

Dave Gilmour with his daughter Romany Guilmour

 

On Recording Outdoors

 At your risk.

Today at about 7am the stand supporting the Shure Unidyne B microphone was bravely placed outside on the balcony.

Acoustic guitar (with thinner strings at tuned higher than 440Hz in order to create slightly higher than times 2 overtones which are more euphonic than x2, that is second harmonic octaves) and male voice were recorded by direct connection of the microphone to the right channel of the SONY TC-D5M.

The microphone was about 24in away from the mouth, 1 foot or so higher than the head.

The recording has some of the amazing sound for example of the 40's to 60's era.

Crisp sound, with detail and no offending bass.

Since every recording sounds more reverberant than real life, a microphone has no brain [reference]. recording outdoors sounds somehow magic.

The birds was a problem! In fact the bird sounded so loud and crispy clear with amazing overtones that it was mistakenly thought not to be in the recording!

Reference: Cinema Engineering (this book was found as reference on Elements of Sound Recording - Frayne, Wolfe)

Recording an Upright Piano

At your risk.

See also previous post on increasing the distance between soundboard and back wall.

For the time being the upright Pleyel model 9 piano (made in approximately 1921) was very carefully (see previous post on avoiding health or other injury) was separated from back wall at least one more foot from a usual position in a house and placed in a non parallel position.

This has already created some openness to the sound.

The piano was tried in a recording by having the front wooden panel removed which again should create standing waves. This had a very good effect on recording by direct comparison with recording with the piano closed. By comparing the playback the sound was more real, more open, more loud, more easy, less fatiguing. 

The front lower wooden panel could also be tried to be removed while recording.

Recording took place by having just one Shure Unidyne B (made in Mexico) at about 60in distance, a bit higher from the piano, at about 30 to 40 degrees in reference to piano line, on the right hand side of the piano. The microphone was connected to the right channel only on the SONY TC-D5M.

Increasing the Upright Piano Distance from the Back Wall

 At your risk.

The back wall and the soundboard, 2 material surfaces of high area should produce standing waves in air.

Same thing with a grand piano between soundboard and floor. But the distance here is greater, creating a more open sound.

But it this respect the upright piano is more advantageous since the back of soundboard to wall distance can be made much greater than on a grand by for example placing the piano at about 90m degrees to said wall. (An assistance of many people should be used for moving safely the piano and avoiding injury. If there is skill the mechanism and other wooden parts lids etc could be removed in order to make the piano less heavy. using its wheels should help too.

Is it nonsense to have an upright piano close tro the back wall since half of its sound at least is radiated from the back of the huge vibrating soundboard?

Tuning again the Pleyel piano model 9

 At your risk.

See previous posts on how this piano was repaired.

As it settled at around A 446Hz, it was decided to use this reference as octaves plus 3rds sounded very euphonic together with the corresponding low note. For example playing E flat together with a high G. There was corresponding cacophony when the piano had been tuned to higher than 450Hz.

So it seems the 5th overtone of a low note mates almost perfectly with no beats with the corresponding high note fundamental when this piano with apparently the original? Ferminy factory strings  was tuned on reference A 446Hz. 

Octaves correspond greatly too giving what the human brain wants which is slightly higher than times 2.

The upright piano distance from the back wall has been increased to better effect see nearby post.

For explanation on overtones see Piano Tuning - Reblitz, Musical Acoustics - Hall.

 

There are YouTube videos on how to replace rubber belts on SONY TC-D5

 At your risk.