Are you looking to record that amazing piano performance? Or maybe you want to record your piano so that it can be sampled and used in music or as a reference. Whatever the the use case, you need to know what the best microphone to record pianos is. To cut right to the chase, the best microphone we found to record a piano is the LyxPro SDPC-2 Stereo Pair of Pencil Condenser Stick Microphones.
This microphone is just amazing when it comes to recording pianos and we will talk about it more in the post (and include some other options as well).
See the LyxPro SDPC-2 Stereo Pair of Pencil Condenser Stick Microphones
A great Microphone that gets the job done
The LyxPro SDPC Microphones are ideal when it comes to recording pianos. Here are some features and highlights with this microphone:
- Excellent build quality – Pro-Grade material and design that is designed for acoustic, percussive and woodwind instruments
- Excellent for drums
- Accurate Stereo representation and reproduction in the recordings
- 3 included capsules with customized pick up pattern – Super cardioid, Cardioid, and omni directional capsule.
- Has a frequency response of 30Hz to 18KHz
- Great dynamic range to pick up the loudest to the quietest of sounds.
Meant for Pianos
These microphones were designed with pianos in mind. When recording a piano, its best practice to use two microphones because of the intricacies of the piano itself.
The great part about these mics is that you can record pianos in several configurations such as XY pattern, single mic and so on. Check out this video for more info. Its really great!
Sound Quality – Phenomenal
The sound quality on these microphones are simply amazing. The SPDC microphones have low self noise with a low noise floor and they are very sensitive which means it can pick up many sounds thats needed in the performance.
They were tested amongst other microphones from dynamic to condenser and they stood up very well – in fact better in most instances.
The upper mids is where the microphones really shine. They have a really nice frequency response in this range of the frequency spectrum. This is good because most mics have a problem with these frequencies, especially cheaper mics. With these mics, very little corrective EQ is needed because they already sound good at the source.
The sound quality is superior overall.
Features Cont…
We mentioned the fact that these mics come with 3 different capsules for different uses – Super cardioid, Cardioid, and omni directional capsule. This is a seriously convenient feature of this microphone because it really shows how much value you are getting.
When tested, these capsules all sound great. We noticed that the omni directional picked up a little bit more sound than expected but overall it wasn’t bad at all.
When we used them on other instruments as well such as saxophone, trumpet and percussion instruments, the capsules really showed how much the mic shines.
Verdict
You cant go wrong with this microphone. It has many highlights which include, great build quality, great frequency response, excellent stereo reproduction, great dynamic range and the fact that 3 capsules are included and fit well.
See the LyxPro SDPC-2 Stereo Pair of Pencil Condenser Stick Microphones
Other Mic Options
Although the SDPC microphone is a great microphone, you probably want to see what our other recommendations are as well. Check them out below..
AKG Pro Audio C414 XLS Instrument Condenser Microphone
Some of its features include
- Bass-cut switch filter that allows you to change to three different settings
- Overload warning that will let you know if the sound is clipping
- Nine selectable polar patterns
- Three levels of attenuation
- Excellent build quality and phenomenal attention to detail
This is a mic that is found in most recording studios and is a secret weapon of many recording engineers. It is touted in many audio communities as “A Legend”.
As far as how the mic sounds, we found that the microphone has a very warm quality to it which is always good. The dynamic range on the microphone is large as well so it can pick up various sounds depending on the settings.
The C414 has a low noise floor as well which is great when you need to compress the sound signal – you wont need to worry about any unnecessary hiss or low frequency rumble.
This is a clean and crisp and beautiful sounding microphone.
Check it out on Amazon:
AKG Pro Audio C414 XLS Instrument Condenser Microphone
Next up…
Audio-Technica PRO 35 Cardioid Condenser Clip-on Instrument Microphone
Just like the name of this product states, this is a microphone designed for instruments in mind. In this case, we are focusing on the piano.
RELATED: Best Electric Piano With Weighted Keys
Some features of this microphone:
- Designed for Piano, saxophone, wind instruments and percussion instruments
- Features a UniMount clip for perfect positioning which helps it become shock resistant
- Features a cardioid polar pattern – This helps to pick up sounds from other directions which help improve isolation of the focused sound source.
- Great frequency response
- Great dynamic range
This mic is known to produce a clean sound with excellent transients, feedback resistance, and uncolored sound. The sound that you expect to get no matter what you are recording is what you should expect to get with this microphone.
In order to get the great sound that you are looking for with this mic, its advised to get two of them to mimic the configuration of the SDPC microphone above. Having two microphones will allow you to take advantage of advanced piano microphone configurations.
The microphone is also very durable as well. The build quality is excellent and allows for the normal “tour life” beating of your instruments.
Check Amazon:
Audio-Technica PRO 35 Cardioid Condenser Clip-on Instrument Microphone
Conclusion
In this post we discussed 3 microphones with one being the best: LyxPro SDPC-2 Stereo Pair of Pencil Condenser Stick Microphones. The sound quality on that microphone is amazing and you cant go wrong with it. If you wanted more options, the AKG Pro Audio C414 XLS Instrument Condenser Microphone and Audio-Technica PRO 35 Cardioid Condenser Clip-on Instrument Microphone are excellent choices as well for recording your piano.
Let us know your thoughts below!
