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I'm still working on getting set up to record my acoustic piano... I'm anxious to share!

I downloaded audacity and tried recording with just my laptop's mic... it sounded terrible.

Then I went and picked up a $20 Samson microphone and a converter thingy for my mac... and that sounded terrible.

I'm figuring that the problem is that my piano either really does sound that plunky and terrible or I need a better microphone.

I know that everyone loves the Zoom H2 and H4, but I'm wondering about alternatives that are less expensive...

Specifically, I found this Snowball USB microphone from Blue (for just under $100.) Blue Snowball USB microphone

I sounds like it should do everything I want it to (record my acoustic piano reasonably well so I can send music to family and friends and participate in the recitals here.)

Have anyone seen or used one of these things? Any thoughts?

I have never used one myself, but the Blue Snowball mics always seem to get good reviews.

Wow.

A condenser mic with a built in A/D and a USB interface...and a built in 10dB pad...

.........ooooooooooo.....ahhhhhhhhhh..........

What will they think of next?

I'm probably going to defer to Mr. S-H. He seems to know what he's talking about. But here's what I think.

Blue has a very good reputation for condenser mics. The A/D converter is set at Compact Disc specs, 44Khz and 16 bit. That's good to about 20Khz.

I'm not sure of the acoustic responce of a piano, probably depends on its environment. But there's enough headroom for frequency response to capture most of the pieces you'll ever play.

The 88th key "C" is appox 4.2Khz. So, if you just look at the A/D converter, you'll have plenty of head room 4th and possibly the 5th harmonic of the highest note. That's a good thing.

The mic is only good to 40-18Khz...which is both good and bad. On the high end, you're limited to the 4th harmonic of the highest keys. On the low end, the A is 27.5 hz. This is well below the mic's range. In fact you have to go all the way up to E1 to get above 40 hz.

It's not all bad, according to the frequency response chart from Blue, your about 7.5 dB down @ 30 hz. ...could be worse.

Of course, if you rarely play the keys at the extreme end of an 88 key keyboard, this just doesn't matter.

16 bits equates to great dynamic range (about 90dB). It's not 24 bit, but it's probably good enough for these kinds of recordings.

What's the noise floor? All amplification system introduce broadband/white noise. I couldn't find a spec for noise level or SNR. Without that spec we won't know how much of the dynamic range is available.

...oh well...

Finally, reading through some of the reviews, I noticed a mention the short cable being an issue. Another said there was firmware upgrades to dicker with the gain. Also, the last review from "Electronic Musician" has a comparative review from some of the competitors for USB mics.

Overall, these mics are aimed at the Podcaster market for those that want better clarity in recording and that "cool" effect. Hence my hesitation when it comes to the noise level.

At $100, I just might buy one. I want to look cool too.

l's dad

Oh dear...

I'm afraid that most of what you said makes very little sense to me. My first reaction to your "noise floor" comment was "we have hardwood, downstairs, carpet in the bedrooms, and ceramic tile in the bathrooms."

The gist I got is that this microphone might be worth it... right?

I really don't know much about recording sound whatsoever. Is a condenser mic what I should be looking for? After listening to my recordings from my cheapo mic I realized that maybe something that can record "in stereo" would be better... is that what this thing will do?

The short cord isn't a problem as I have been just putting my laptop right on top of my piano (an upright).

Thanks for your input...

Sorry GoLightly,

My bad!

Often times I forget...the rest of the world is "analog".

Using/specifying microphones is part of my day job. Duh... :rolleyes:

Here's another opinion.

Back in '05, Dr. Mac, Bob LeVitus, author of "Garage Band for Dummies", (recording software), called it the "...best sounding USB [mic] I ever used..." see link

That would be enough of an endorsement for me.

Saner advice, if you're just experimenting, $100 is a lot of money to toss. Make sure whomever you buy it from has a decent return policy...just in case.

If $100 is in your comfort zone and this form factor is what you prefer, then go for it.

Again, my appologies. As I re-read my post, my blatant over zealousness does nothing to hide my enthusiasm for hardware.

If you buy it, let us know how it works out!

l's "disgusting verbose, geek of a" dad

No worries whatsoever!

I'm a graphic designer by trade, so I often find myself doing the same thing regarding digital images, typography, and color issues.

I'll say something about the PMS color conversion to CMYK and digital output versus computer-to-plate and the client just looks at me with their mouth hanging open before saying "but will the letters still be blue?"

I have hunch that this snowball thingy will do the job just fine. But you are right, it's a good idea to purchase it from someone with a good return policy.

Thanks for all your help!

Oh, I forgot to add that to hook up the bad microphone to my computer required a little converter thingy that cost twice as much as the mic, so I was spent nearly $80 on that set-up.

An extra 20 bucks doesn't seem like much of a leap if the sound is that much better...

Hey, just stumbled across this thread. I have a Blue Snowball mic. Here's a recording I made with it a few months ago:

http://www.box.net/shared/jcv85n2q7f

Not the best piano (old Wurlitzer spinet), so that explains some of the sound. I made this with the snowball switched to "3" which I believe is the omnidirectional "garage band" mode. It might work better on "1" mic'ed a lot closer. Overall, it's OK for piano recording. But you could do a lot better with directional microphones, I think (though the cost jumps up quickly).

I find that I have to dial in a lot of gain to get the level up and that brings the noise floor way up. I'm no recording engineer, so perhaps I was doing something obvious wrong. Recordings I've heard with people using the Zoom H4 and now the H2 are much better than this. Since I made this, I got a firewire interface and a pair of cheap condenser mics. Much better results. On par with the Zoom. I don't have an example of that posted tho...

As always YMMV.

I just created a login to give you a heads up. If you are a student, apple sells the snowball for 79 bucks. There is one listed on Amazon for 75 new through one of their suppliers. I would check those out if you want to get the mic for a great price (well, compared to the other stores that I looked at). I just bought the mic and am enjoying it so far, but I haven't learned all of its secrets yet...

Hey, I just ordered a Blue Snowball. I also need a video camera to go with it. I'm trying to convince myself I could use an iPad, but I don't know... kind of costly.

I can't comment on the Snowball mic, since I use a Zoom H2 for quick recording (and I have a more elaborate stereo rig if I want studio quality). But whatever mic you get, be sure to experiment a lot with mic placement. Pianos can be difficult to mic, and you can get wildly different results with different physical arrangements of mics, lids, walls, etc.

Sure I'll experiment, but being a beginner I'm not sure whether to aim at getting a good or a bad sound. Maybe I should replace the recording with some white noise and then blame the mic.

As for video camera, when using separate camera och microphone, is there ever any problem syncing them properly, or is that always taken care of by the software with no problem?

WHAT exactly sounds terrible in your recording?

Maybe you can post the audio so that we can hear what's the problem if you can't tell.

Without good analysis of the problem you may be throwing away money by investing in the wrong parts. If your piano sounds terrible to start with, no mike will make it sound better.

I would even say the opposite, if your piano sounds good to start with, even a crappy mic can give quite nice results. I have a simple video camera mic and still I'm pretty happy with my recordings.