Turtlerock Forum

Hoping someone here can help - I'm looking for a room in Sydney with a nice piano for a few days (2-3 days max) to engineer/track piano/vocals for a female singer. No other instrumentation, just voice and piano. Ideally, some time available on consecutive days within the next 4-5 weeks would be perfect. If you can help me out please get in touch via PM and we'll go from there!

Thanks.

Steve

Last time I saw Jeff Cripps at A Sharp he had a nice baby grand in his space. Give him a call and see if he still has it.

http://www.asharp.com.au/studio.html

Thanks Manning, I'll do that.

Steve.

301 studio one if it's in your budget.

or there is a nice (like seriously nice - people get very excited about it) upright at GPHQ (all over records by freedman, pinky, tim finn, the falls, boy and bear etc)
we have a few quiet weeks so happy to do you a deal if you want a few days.
gareth at gigpiglet.com.au

I use A Sharp for grand piano. It's actually bigger than a baby grand at 6 foot.

Hi Steve,

from a pianists point of view I'd like to try the piano before I'd book time at a studio.

If the artist you're producing plays well and as there is no other instrumentation then the focus is going to be on the piano.

Make up a short list from recommendations and then call the various studios, explain what you'll be doing and ask if they can spare 15 minutes for you and the artist to audition the piano.

By doing this the artist can decide how she feels bout the action and sound of the piano while you can check it out from a technical veiwpoint... have a listen for any mechanical noises such as when the dampers touch the strings or impact noise or squeaking from the sustain pedal, any rattles, whether it's boomy etc. Also listen to how it sounds in the room when you step back from it, incase you decide to throw some room mics up.

Sometimes a large professional upright can sound and play better than a small grand. eg; Kawai K6 upright has much longer bass strings than a baby grand.

The trick with an upright is to get it away from the wall, give it a bit of air. Unfortunately a lot of studios stick an upright in the corner, this tends to make them sound dull and boomy. Pull them out into the middle of the room and they'll open up and sound completely different.

Lastly, once you've made your decision, make sure the piano is tuned on the morning of the session after the air conditioning has been on for an hour or two.

Hope this helps.

+1 Great Post Greg!

Thanks for the post Greg, very informative.

Steve

Hi Steve,

I know that Free Energy Device in Camperdown has a great, unique sounding baby grand piano - Sort of old and warm sounding, heaps of character..

PM if you need a contact.

pm'd you

Steve,
I have a beautiful Yamaha C7 that you could check out. Not your typical recording environement, but many happy customers in the past.