Piano

The piano is near and dear to my heart. It’s the first instrument I learned to play, and it’s still my favorite instrument with which to write and compose.

Due to its range and versatility, the piano can play just about any role in any kind of song. It can provide tonal support as a bass instrument. It can comprise the “meat and potatoes” of the song. It can be used as a rhythm, a texture, or even just an adornment.

I like to make full use of the piano in my own music, and the most efficient way I’ve found to do it is through the use of a MIDI controller plugged directly into my computer. With my MIDI controller routed to my DAW, I can select a number of different piano tones, from various acoustic pianos to a variety of electric models.

I often write this way, using headphones or desk monitors to hear my performance in real time. Other times, I craft the performance completely within my DAW, manually editing the notes and their properties. The important thing to remember, as a bedroom producer, is that the technology available in 2021 bypasses many of the limitations there are to recording a real acoustic piano, or even certain electric models. Though I acknowledge the benefits and potential for sonic greatness, I’ve only recorded acoustic piano performances on a handful of occasions and found it to be a tiresome and often dissatisfying experience. It’s a lot of work, and it doesn’t always pay off.

But if you’re going to do it, you’ll want to cater your approach to the music you’re recording.

You can find piano in just about any style of music. It might be the primary tool of a singer-songwriter. Maybe it’s in the background of a rock performance. It can even be sampled and looped so that a skilled emcee can rap to it.

What microphones you use, where you place them, and how close or far away will all depend on what the song requires. One of my more fulfilling experiences as a producer was with a quiet folk EP, which seemed to call for a real, live, intimate acoustic performance. The first challenge was having a piano.

I grew up with an old upright Baldwin and probably could have swung by my parents’ house with a couple of microphones and a laptop, but in addition to my aversion to interrupting their peace and quiet, the piano was perpetually out of tune. So I got my own.

A musician I knew was moving out of the state and getting rid of a few larger instruments, so I took an old Janssen off of his hands and had it professionally moved to my home at the time.

No big deal.

But one of the most expensive and time-consuming challenges I learned through that experience is that moving an acoustic piano can drastically alter the tuning of the instrument. Before I could record anything worth listening to, I had to have a local guy come by the house and spend a couple hours digging around and hammering away at the thing with the top open.

Once I had an instrument that sounded good, I came up with a production strategy that involved the use of a couple condenser microphones at medium range to capture a good, even spread of the hammers utilized by the performance.

I chose condenser microphones because I wanted a bright and detailed replication of the instrument’s character for these particular songs.

Medium range allowed me to keep the dynamic range small while maintaining an intimate distance.

And I recorded with the top of the piano open for a hint more of clarity and intimacy.

I was proud of the way it sounded and released the EP, Dried Earth, in 2015, but I’ve since avoided the idea of repeating the exercise.

MIDI allows me to compose, record, and edit a comparable and sometimes superior piano performance in a fraction of the time, and with more tonal options.

There is a third method, of course, which is to plug an electric piano directly into a recording interface. I’ve never needed to do this myself, but I could see it being the best option if MIDI wasn’t available or if the particular instrument had its own unique tone or “feel,” in terms of the performer’s physical interaction with it. Either way, a good bedroom producer always keeps this instrument handy in the compositional toolbox, because in the bedroom studio, where there's a will, there's a way.