1

Unit 48 & 49
My focus and why
I originally thought of looking at film music as I wish to become a composer,
writing for films and television but decided to look at piano music instead as some
of my favorite pieces of music by my favorite composers, Debussy and Schumann,
are piano pieces so I wanted to create my own version of their work and create a
piece inspired by them.
Musical and production characteristics of piano music
A piano can be used in a variety of different genres such as pop music, classical
and jazz music. 'Almost every modern piano has 52 white keys and 36 black keys
for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). Many older
pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7). Some piano
manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions'.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano 12/02/16)

There are two types of piano, grand pianos and an upright piano. A pianos sound
is generated when they keys are pressed down causing the 'mechanical hammer
system' to hit the instruments strings. As a grand piano 'is an acoustically complex
instrument' there are a number of ways to mic it up depending on the preference
of the artist, producer or engineer as well as the style of music being performed.
As a grand piano has a large surface area, it is suggested that microphones should
be placed between 4 to 6 feet away to achieve the best tonal sound. If the
recording space needs to be shared with other instruments, having the 4-6 feet
gap is not always possible due to the blending of different instruments. Grand
pianos are then miked which favour the strings and soundboard, hammer system
and the soundboard holes. Miking these three areas helps to produce a bright and
natural tone from the strings and soundboard, 'sharp percussive tone' for the
hammer system and a 'sharp, full-bodied sound' from the soundboard holes.
In todays recording studios, there are two main styles of grand piano, the concert
grand which is commonly used when playing classical music which can be up to 9
feet in length which, when played, produces a 'full-bodied tone'. The second style
is a studio grand, which ranges up to 7 feet, 'is more suited for modern music
production' techniques ' and has a sharper, more percussive edge to its tone'. The
only way to really find the sound that you are looking for is to experiment with the
microphones placement, using trial and error until you find the sound you are
after.
A preferred choice of microphone to mic up a grand piano is a condenser or an
extended-range dynamic microphone. These kinds of microphone precisely
represent the short-lived and complex temperament of the instrument, although if
instruments are leaking into each other, using a microphone with a cardioid polar
pattern in a close-miked set up can be used to reduce this. If this is not an issue
then placing microphone 3 to 6 feet away would help to capture the instruments

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

timbre.
Grand pianos often encounter problems when placed next to noisy instruments.
Separating the instruments when miking the piano can help avoid bleeding of
other instruments. Ways to overcome this can be placing the piano into another
room, placing an acoustic separator in-between the instruments, overdub the
piano at a later time. Opening the lid or removing it will allow the microphones to
pick up a more natural sound and lastly, placing the microphones inside and
covering the lid with a blanket could help to reduce the leakage of instruments.
Upright pianos are designed for home use and enjoyment and not performance or
studio use, therefore creating new miking arrangements as its slightly harder 'to
achieve a respectable tone quality when using an upright' piano.
Ways to mic up an upright include 'miking over then top', 'miking the kickboard
area' and 'miking the upper soundboard area'. Miking over the top involves
placing two microphones spaced apart, one over the bass and the other over the
higher strings, slightly above and in front of the pianos open top. To help reduce
resonance, its wise to move the piano away from any walls. Miking the kickboard
area would produce a more natural sound. By removing the kickboard at the lower
front part would expose the strings and by placing the microphones in 'a stereo
spaced pair over the strings', around 8 inches above the bass and higher strings,
like the first option, miking over the top. If one microphone is available its best to
place it over the higher strings but this placement is known to 'pick up excessive
foot pedal noise'.
Lastly, miking the upper soundboard area, 'to reduce excessive hammer attack',
its best to place the two microphones 8 inches away from the sound board above
the bass and high strings and for the piano to be facing into the room, away from
walls to reduce unclearness.
(Modern recording techniques, Chapter 4, Pages 155 157)

How piano music used to be and is now recorded

I looked back on how music in general was recorded in the late 1800's to the early
1900's whilst also looking at how Debussy's work was performed. The
Phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison, paved the way for music to be recorded
and played back and was invented in 1877, more commonly known now as a
gramophone.

'Sound is collected by a horn that is attached to a diaphragm. The sound causes

vibrations in the air that travel down the horn causing the diaphragm to vibrate.
The diaphragm is connected to a stylus and pressed into a cylinder covered in wax
(or alternatively a thin layer of tin foil). When a handle is turned, the cylinder rotates
and also moves very slowly along. The stylus pushes into the wax and, when the
cylinder is rotated, cuts a groove. The stylus also moves up and down very slightly
as it vibrates with the sound and so the wax now contains a recording of the sound
in the groove.
We play the sound back by using the stylus to translate the groove back into

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

vibrations onto the diaphragm and this in turn to the horn from which the sound
can be heard. Although the phonograph idea is simple enough it was a triumph of
engineering. The movement of the cylinder and groove need to be very accurately
aligned in order for the machine to work at all.'
(http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/series2/challenges/sound/page3.html 15/02/16)

In 1896, a piano roll with a playing range from A1 to C Sharp 7, 65 notes, was
created which is used to operate a player piano. The piano roll is a continuous roll
of paper with lots of holes punched into it, which act as the notes. The roll moves
over a reading system called a tracker bar, which allows the notes to sound when
passed over. Piano rolls were constantly made from 1896 to 2008 and they are still
available today. A modern day version of a piano roll is the MIDI file, which stores
musical data. 'MIDI files accomplish digitally and electronically what piano rolls do
mechanically. Software for editing a performance stored as MIDI data often has a
feature to show the music in a piano roll representation.'
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_roll

15/02/16)

Debussy created recording with Mary Garden in 1904 which were made for the
Gramophone Company and Created piano rolls in 1913 for Welte-Mignan, a
'manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in
Vhrenbach by Michael Welte (18071880) in 1832'.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welte-Mignon 15/02/16)

'Music has become an even greater part of society now, because of recordings,
radio broadcasts, and the ability to mass print copies of music for anyone to play in
the convenience of their home.'
(http://webpages.shepherd.edu/BREICH01/ 15/02/16)

Software used and why

The software I used to create my three pieces was logic and Sibelius. I used
Sibelius to create my own piece as I much prefer Sibelius as I like to input notes
individually and although this can be done on logic, I find it much easier and
quicker on Sibelius. As the brief spoke about using MIDI, although you can
connect any MIDI keyboard to Sibelius, it is easier to use logic alongside MIDI.
I also used logic for my cover and remix pieces as I needed to record in audio and
you cannot, as far as I know, record into Sibelius and so logic was the best to use.
Other suitable software I could have used would be Ableton Live or FL studio as
they all do the same thing but just in a different way but as I have no experience of
using either of these, it was easier to use software I know and am comfortable
with.
Strengths and weaknesses to DAWS
A weakness I found to using logic is that it is much harder and time consuming to
use the Score on logic as you had to select each note from the side and go back
every time to select a note, even if you wanted to use, for example, three crotchets

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

notes, instead of it already being selected until you change the note value, it would
only be there for one click where as on Sibelius, once you select your note,
crotchet, you would not have to keep going back to select it, it would be there until
you wanted a different value.
Another strength to using logic is that you are able to record in audio whereas, you
cannot do this with Sibelius without using another DAW or software to help.
A weakness to using Sibelius is that you cannot apply any effects such as reverb or
compression to the instruments therefore you are just left with the computerized
sound of your chosen instrument(s), in my case, piano. Also, you cannot change
the velocity of the notes. The only indication you could give would be performance
terms such as 'dolce' or musical terms such as tenuto, staccato, legato or
marcato.
A strength to using Sibelius is that it has a vast range of Western instruments such
as those found in an orchestra as well as a large number of African and Eastern
instruments. But logic only has a select few of non-Western instruments, and the
Western instruments it does have, are the more common ones. Therefore to create
a more orchestral style piece, which I was going to do if I had chosen film music as
my focus, it would be much easier to use Sibelius to create my work.
Instruments
Instruments that I used to create my three pieces include;
Own Piece
o Sibelius Piano; two treble clefs and one bass clef
Logic instruments such as;
Schumann Remix;
o Velo Jumper
o Distant Waves
o Epic Trance Gate
o Wave Sequence
o Mesmerizing Saws
Schumann Cover
o Synthetic Harp
o Breathless oboe
o Soul Organ
Recorded drum kit;
o Kick Drum
o Left Overhead
o Right Overhead
o Top Snare
o Bottom Snare
o Rack Tom
o Floor Tom
How did you record/create the 3 pieces (problems and solving them?)
I started with creating my own piece and decided to do some research on Debussy

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

as I wanted to create something that was linked to him.

I came across a quote from him in which he said 'There is no theory. You have only
to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to
free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth, an open-air
art boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in
and become an academic art.' (http://www.quoteland.com/author/Claude-Debussy-Quotes/1778/
15/02/16)

From this I decided to create a piece where I would compose freely and see what I
came up with. There was no particular structure or chord pattern, I would use trial
and error until I created something I believed to be pleasing, paying no attention
to the strict rules of harmony.
For the cover and remix pieces, I decided to look at a Schumann piece, 'Of
Foreign Lands and Peoples', I studied whilst taking A level music and decided that
I wanted to do my own version of it and remix. I tried to look for already existing
MIDI documents of Scenes from Childhood - Opus 15, No.1 'Of Foreign Lands and
Peoples', but versions found were those that had already been altered by others
so that they had their own interpretation of it. Therefore I looked up the sheet
music and decided it would be easier, although slightly time consuming, to input
the music note by note via Sibelius.
I used Sibelius to input the piece, which is only 30/40 seconds long with repeats,
then open two new Sibelius documents and copy over the bass clef to one and
treble clef to the other. I then bounced these in a MIDI format so that I was able to
open them in logic. I then copied over the logic bass clef to the logic treble clef
window where from I then saved different versions so that I could start to create my
cover version and remix.
__________________________________________________________________________
With my cover version, I separated out the different phrases in the treble clef into
new MIDI region and looked through logics instrument database until I found an
instrument I liked and felt I could built my cover version upon. I selected
'Breathless Oboe' and found that this instrument along with Schumann's melody,
created a circus or carnival music feel/atmosphere as its sound reminded me of
one of the most famous pieces of music typically played at a circus, 'Entrance of
the Gladiators' by Julius Fuk.
My cover version,
like with circus
music, does have
three parts but its
structure is closer
to rondo form,
(A/B/A/C/A), than
the divided three
strains which
makes up the

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

stereotypical structure, exposition, trio and breakstrain.

My piece is at a much slower tempo (68BPM)
than a typical circus piece,(200BPM), but there
are some works which like mine are at a much
slower tempo. I then added in other instruments
such as 'Synthetic Harp', 'Soul Organ' to add to
the texture and rearranged the order of the
melody, hence the rondo structure.
The instruments used had been sent via a bus
but from multiple listenings, I determined that
turning the busses on and off made no
difference at all and so removed them from the
mix.
Other effects the instruments came with, I left on after I had a played around with
each effect and decided that I much preferred the 'default' version.
If I was to do this cover version again, I would have sent channel EQ to a bus as
multiple times when I was trying to listen to my cover version, logic kept crashing
and I believe this was due to each track having its own EQ insert which overloaded
logic.
I did however use a bus to
add some compression. I
used a pre set, 'VCA Slow',
and send as much to the
compressor as I wanted. I
did alter the pre set settings
slightly whilst comparing
the compressed sound to
the original until I was
happy.

___________________________________________________________________________
For the remix, I used the same process as the cover version, by splitting the
melody into different sections and used trial and error to find the right instrument
or effect. I came across 'Velo Jumper, which turned the melody into an arpeggio. I
then went in search for other sounds for the different melodic sections and used
sounds such as 'Distant Waves', 'Mesmerizing Saws' and 'Wave Sequence'.
As this was the piece that I wanted to add drums to, I temporarily used some
effects to create a bass drum, which were replaced once the drums were recorded
in. When recording in the drums, I made sure that there was enough headroom

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

just in case the drummer decided to hit the drums harder.

Once I had all the pieces, I then started to look at the inserts which came with the
different instruments
and sounds as some
sounds like 'Epic
Trance Gate' and
'Distant Waves' had so
many unnecessary
effects such as a
limiter, Phaser and
Bitcrusher, that when I
turned them on and off
to compare the
sounds, they made no
difference and so I
removed all, what I
deemed to be,
unnecessary effects,
from each track. With
the effects that I did use, I did play around with some to slightly change the sound
into something more pleasing but with others used I left them as they came.
After this, I then started to look at my audio and added necessary compression
and channel EQ. I felt it was not necessary to add any reverb as I felt that as the
room the drums was recorded in
was rather large, I felt that the
microphones picked up some of
the rooms ambience and so left
it like that so that I did not over
do it.
I used a bus (aux1) on the
drums for compression and sent
as much as I desired to the
compressor. I used a pre set,
'drum room', and then I

decided to slightly change some parts until I

achieved the sound I wanted whilst
comparing the compressed sound to the
original.
If I was to do this piece again, I would still
record in drums but I would have recorded

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

in a much smaller room as from comparing my task 2 recordings, I found when

recording in the larger room, not only could you tell it was recorded in a larger
space but I felt as if some of the drums power has been lost into the room despite
the microphones being as close as possible to the kit.
Task 2
Factors taken into consideration for task 2
The microphones that are used when recording need to be taken into
consideration as you need to make sure that you select the correct microphone for
the instrument and its range. For example, if
a pianos frequency range is 27.5Hz to
4186Hz, although humans can only hear
frequencies between 20Hz to 20KHz so
there is very little point creating a
microphone that captures anything above
this, you should be using a microphone that
spans the frequencies humans can hear such
as a Shure SM81 Condenser or a Neumann
KM 184. Using a microphone such as an
Audix F14 for a piano would be a disaster, as
you will loose all frequencies above 10KHz
as the F14's frequency range spans from
30Hz to 10KHz.
You also need to make sure you know what
kind of microphone you are using as if its a
condenser microphone, you need to make sure you are sending phantom power
(+48V) to it.

'Condenser Microphones pick up sound via a thin, flexible diaphragm placed in

proximity to a metal plate as opposed to the rigid diaphragm-and-coil system
used by dynamic microphones. They need power to operate the most common
source being +48v' (phantom power).
(http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/what-difference-between-dynamic-condensermicrophones/ 17/02/16)

Factors that need to be considered when recording instruments, for example, if

you are trying to record a song with all the instruments in one room, it maybe a
good idea to record in drums first as they can overpower many instruments and
the drums could then be a guide for all other instruments. Making sure that the
instrument is in tune can be helpful as an out of tune guitar for example could ruin
your song or, it could be a happy accident.

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

The room the instrument is being recording in is significant as you need to decide
if you want the instrument to, if other instruments also need to be recorded, be in a
room by itself or with the other
instruments as you can get leakage
from other instruments which could
be fighting for space to be heard as
their frequencies may overlap. If you
want to captures the rooms natural
reverb, and then your best bet is to
use a larger room rather than a
smaller room. Using a smaller room
would obviously mean that there
would be little or no reverb
produced and with any sized room,
you need to make sure that
standing waves wont be produced
and so using bass taps, acoustic
panels and diffusers can help avoid
this.
When preparing and selecting
microphones for task two, I had very little control over what rooms were used
although the two rooms available to me over the two days happened to work in my
favour as the first day we were in a small room with low ceilings, and the next day
in a much larger room with higher ceilings. One thing out of my control was the
microphone available. For the first day, I did not have enough microphones to mic
up a drum kit fully and I had a limited array of microphones to use. For the first 2
versions we used the same microphones for the same instrument and for the third
time, we swapped the bottom snare with the overhead. The next day the
microphones available were very different and I also had more the second day.
Although it was good to have different microphones, it meant that it was hard to
compare the sound quality from the two rooms and it did not help that different
parts of the drum kit were miked up, again, making it harder to compare and
contrast the tonal differences.
Were some recording better than others? Why?
I was able to collect 5 recordings, three in Studio A's adjacent small recording
room and in the HNC's larger recording room. From listening to the recordings, I
feel that the recordings made in the smaller room, Studio A's recording room,
were slightly better as the two produced in the larger room, I feel, captured too
much of the rooms ambience and despite having two recordings in the larger
room, one close and the other further away, I feel that some of the drum kits power
was lost into the room whereas in the smaller room, the microphones were able to
capture the drums power.

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

10

For example, the Audix F10, used

in the smaller room on multiple
drums, has an appropriate
frequency response range meaning
that frequencies between 50Hz and
12KHz produced by the drum kit
will be picked up and so using an
Audix F10 for the kick drum and
floor tom is a good idea as when
these are hit, the frequencies will
be picked up by the microphone.
The only down side to using the
Audix F10 microphone in the
smaller room is that it was used for
the kick drum and the frequency
range a kick drum produces is from
20Hz to 100Hz and as the Audix
F10 was used, all frequencies below 50Hz were lost, so if I was able to use the
Audix F14 in the smaller room, I could
have captured the lower frequencies.
I think that if the microphones used in
the larger room were also used in the
smaller room, this would have created
a better set up and would also be
better than the first set up in the
smaller room.
Comparing the two 'far away'
microphone versions, I still preferred
the far away version recorded in the
smaller room as I feel the recording in
the larger room felt as if the drum kit
was really far away. I did move the
microphone a lot further away in the
larger room, because there was a lot
more space, but also to see if the
rooms reverb would give an effect
but instead made it sound very
weak.
Overall, with the comparisons, I much prefer the sound of drums recorded in
smaller environments over larger ones. Its clear from a drum kits design, that it is
supposed to be a loud, dominant instrument and I think that anything, such as
room or microphone(s), used that would remove a large amount of its force is not
using that instrument to its full potential. I understand that on some occasions, the
timbre of the drum kit in a large room is needed or desired but I think that if it can,

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

11

it should be avoided.
I found that, apart from condenser
microphones needing phantom power
(+48V), there is very little different
between condenser and dynamic
microphones. If I were to record an
instrument with lower frequencies, I
would be more inclined to use a
dynamic microphone as dynamic
microphones tend to be designed to
pick up lower frequencies whereas
condenser microphones are designed
to pick up higher frequencies.
The microphones used in Studio A's
Recording room were
Audix F10 (x2)
Audix F12
Audix F15
Neumann KM 184 (+48V)
The microphones available in the HNC's Recording room were
Audix F14 - kick drum
Audix F10 - bottom snare
Shure SM58 - top snare
Neumann TLM 102 (x2) - overheads (+48V)
It is important to make sure that before recording starts that there is enough
headroom available otherwise
clipping/distortion can occur.
With version 4, close microphone
position in the HNC room, the kick
drum has some slight distortion,
which makes it harder to compare
the sound between the different
rooms and microphones.
Instruments easier to record than
others?
The only instrument that I was
able to record were the drums but
I managed to use two different
rooms and different microphones
to create 5 recording to compare.
As far as recording drums, miking

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

12

up a drum kit is relatively straightforward. If you have the right microphones and
enough of them, you would mic the kick drum, potentially also having a sub kick
microphone, top and bottom snare, rack and floor tom and two overhead
microphones, in a spaced pair set up for example, you would have 8 in total
covering the entire kit and this would have been an ideal set up for both days.
If I was to do this exercise again, I would find out what instruments are available
and create a small chart to organize what microphones, instruments and room are
used so that I have a vast collection to compare. Creating small charts and taking
photographs would act as a guide so that I could keep a record of the instruments,
rooms and microphones used which would help me compare and contrast and
hear the differences which would therefore help me in my understanding of
recording and production techniques.

ACOUSTIC GUITAR MIDI

ROOM

Position 1

Position 2

Position 1

Position 2

Position 1

Position 2

Position 1

Position 2

Position 1

Position 2

Microphone 1
Microphone 2

ELECTRIC GUITAR MIDI

ROOM
Microphone 1
Microphone 2

DRUMS STUDIO A
Microphone 1
Microphone 2
Microphone 3
Microphone 4
Microphone 5

ACOUSTIC GUITAR
SONDHEIM ROOM
Microphone 1
Microphone 2

ELECTRIC GUITAR
SONDHEIM ROOM
Microphone 1

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield

13
Microphone 2

DRUMS SONDHEIM
ROOM

Position 1

Position 2

Microphone 1
Microphone 2
Microphone 3
Microphone 4
Microphone 5
If doing it again meant that I could only records drums, I would make sure that I
miked the same parts of the drum kits in both rooms as the parts of the drum kit
miked in studio A which were 1 overhead, bottom snare, rack tom, floor tom and
the kick drum where as in the HNC room, the parts miked up were the kick drum,
bottom snare, top snare and two overheads. Ideally, I would use 7 microphones, a
kick drum microphone, bottom snare microphone and top snare microphone, rack
tom and floor tom microphones and two overhead microphones therefore the
entire drum kit would be covered.

L3 BTEC Music Technology

Units 48 and 49

Daisy Grace Wakefield