Mastering your Solo Piano Instrumentals

[jlizerbram]

Hi all,

For those of you who compose some solo piano instrumentals, and since there is generally just one instrument (the piano), how do you master the final mix? Do you just keep it simple, and don't apply anything, or do you use any compression or reverb to bring out any other characteristics of the piano? Also, to what dB would you normalize a solo piano instrumental? My solo piano instrumental tracks are coming out way too "loud" in comparison to tracks with full-band instruments.

Thanks!

-Jeff

[annayarbrough]

Since the piano has such a huge dynamic range, I do use some compression and a limiter—however, because it's solo piano, it's definitely more subtle than what I would use on something with multiple instruments. If you squish it too much, the piano will sound flat and lifeless.

As for reverb—yes. It puts some air around the VI (if that's what you're using) and takes away a bit of that 'out-of-the-box' sound. Gotta be careful not to overdo it though. I'll EQ a bit if I'm looking for a particular sound, but more often than not I leave it alone.

I don't really have an exact science for volume, I just match it closely to a piece in a similar genre/style! Depends what I'm writing, I guess.

Overall, I'm definitely a big fan of simple for solo piano. If you're starting with a great sample and a great recording, it should only take minimal tweaking to get it where you want it!

Hope that helps

[Len911]

+1 what Anna said!

There's maybe a couple more things you could mess around with, like delay, or Sonnox has their transmod which works on the transients, Brainworx bx control 2 is something you can use to work on the stereo with m/s matrix, widen, narrow, move bass frequencies more or less to the middle, and check phase. These plugins can be automated as well.

[ecurb]

I don't have any experience with recording real acoustic pianos, I imagine they'd be a whole different kettle of fish.

But assuming we're talking virtual instruments, I usually don't end up compressing solo piano tracks at all. Though sometimes I'll tweak the MIDI data and drop volume on an individual note or two that's spiking a bit too much. For EQ, I generally add low pass and high pass filters right out near the ends of the spectrum but that's about it. Very occasionally I've dropped some gentle shelving in to thin things out a little, but I really try to avoid doing so as I find it can quickly make the sound unnatural. It may be worth considering switching to a brighter piano sound, or rethinking your note clusters, if you're finding you need to make radical EQ cuts.

I always end up with some reverb, though probably not enough based on what I've been told elsewhere I high pass the reverb also, usually rather more vigorously than I do the main signal... only other thing I can think of is that if using close up stereo mic samples, where the lower notes sound to the left and high notes to the right, I sometimes notice the overall signal can get quite a bit off centre, if for example the piece you are playing is mostly in the lower registers. So I'll occasionally tweak pan a little to straighten the overall balance up a bit.

All this does vary quite a bit based on both the style of piece and the tone of the particular instrument used of course.

Bruce.

P.S. I usually go for around about -1dB peaks for solo piano.

[cosmicdolphin]

My solo piano instrumental tracks are coming out way too "loud" in comparison to tracks with full-band instruments.

Do you have any examples Jeff ?...It all kinda depends.

Since the piano has such a huge dynamic range,

..Maybe that's where I going wrong ...............setting all the velocities to 127

[jlizerbram]

Hi CosmicDolphin (very cool name!)

Yes, an example would be the first track on my sound cloud page, http://soundcloud.com/lizardsongcom which is the solo piano cue named pondering keys, followed by a track that is more of a full electronic band type of cue. I tweaked the piano solo last night, so I think it's better, but not sure.

Thanks!