I suppose I’ve not really thought about it all that much before for some reason, although generally I do like piano arranged width-wise where you can get the sense of the length of the instrument usually, as long as that does not overwhelm the presence of the other main instruments. But, about the only mic position I’ve heard that I dislike is when they put the mic inside the piano...typically results in a grotesquely larger than life piano sound IME and destroys the natural sense of scale and perspective associated with the instrument.
But once in a while, you find engineers who should know better than to do this who find themselves forced to for other considerations. Sometimes a young ’rising star’ of a classical pianist will come out of nowhere, as it were (self-taught), who manages to make the scene in the classical recording world. The only problem is that since they learned their skills at home or away from professional piano instructors, they seem to pick up a rather bad habit along the way - that is, they hum while they are playing. And this ain’t no 60-Hz hum, if you know what I mean. And they usually hum quite loudly and throughout the entirety of everything they play! So ingrained is the habit that they seem unable to play in silence. So the engineers resort to the only trick to cover that up that they know - with the piano lid closed. I have at least one or two examples of that and underneath the performance you can still plainly hear them humming away.
Cheers
But once in a while, you find engineers who should know better than to do this who find themselves forced to for other considerations. Sometimes a young ’rising star’ of a classical pianist will come out of nowhere, as it were (self-taught), who manages to make the scene in the classical recording world. The only problem is that since they learned their skills at home or away from professional piano instructors, they seem to pick up a rather bad habit along the way - that is, they hum while they are playing. And this ain’t no 60-Hz hum, if you know what I mean. And they usually hum quite loudly and throughout the entirety of everything they play! So ingrained is the habit that they seem unable to play in silence. So the engineers resort to the only trick to cover that up that they know - with the piano lid closed. I have at least one or two examples of that and underneath the performance you can still plainly hear them humming away.
Cheers