Soudstage issue

Not an unusual occurrence, in my experience, and one I've wondered about a little too. When you think of it, a solo piano has its own pair of stereo recording mikes, so this could cause the effect; I've always assumed that it was because of the positioning of the piano and the mikes. If the piano is recorded "head-on", the lower octaves would be favored in the right channel, the higher in the left. Anyone out there with recording experience who could comment?

It is pretty common to have the piano spread across the soundstage. These recordings are done with the microphones close to the piano so the perspective when they are played back is that of a person playing a piano or standing right next to it. It is not natural from the listener's perspective, but many (most?) modern recordings are done this way.

probably not your system. sounds like the recording engineer put the mikes to close to get a unified sound. i have experienced the lows on the left/highs on the right syndrome on my system on many occasions, usually on solo piano recordings and occasionally on solo piano and vocal.sounds like a nice system. enjoy the music!

Probably isn't your system. The player hears the lows slightly on the left, and highs to the right, but you shouldn't. Mediocre engineering is the most likely culprit.

Thanks for the feedback. I am fairly new to this great hobby and almost everything is dialing in except this one issue. When I listen to "Kind of Blue" the piano is 100% to stage right and sounds great. This definately points me to the individual recording. It's kind of annoying when you hear each instument placed perfectly and the piano blanketing the whole scene. Time to search out the best recorded LP's. Thanks for the help.

Bob

The effect of the lower octaves on the left and the upper octaves on the right is a very common result of studio miking techniques used for upright pianos. In the early days, most studio engineers for jazz labels placed two mics in spaced fashion just over and in front of the piano's open top--one over the bass strings, and one over the high strings--and then compressed the signal to reduce excessive hammer attack. There were two other methods for uprights: miking the kick board area, and miking the upper sound board area. The two big problems in recording piano players in jazz ensembles was always leakage and resonances.
The art of miking a grand piano is far more complex, and depends on the style and preferences of the engineer. There are about 6 different basic miking positions, each yielding a different sound. But everyone has there own variations. Some engineers will space a stereo configuration one over the low strings and the other over the high strings either over the hammers (for a driving popular or rock sound) or at a distance outside the piano if leakage is not a problem (as in solo performances). If the engineer is aiming for transients, then he will use a condenser or extended range microphone, if he wants to capture the overall tonal balance of the instrument, he will use an omnidirectional mic. Should leakage be a problem, a cardiod or tighter polar pattern can be used.