I need some tips on piano recording.

[BigBubbaBrown]

My mom's giving me her piano. It's an upright. I haven't done any acoustic recording since my teenage years when I was recording my drums onto cassette tapes with a cheap Radio Shack microphone. I have an external audio interface with two XLR inputs and a couple of mics my dad gave me, probably not professional quality but the bluegrass singer who gave them to him always sounded pretty good at the festivals where he used them so they're a considerable step up from the $10 Radio Shack mics.

 

I'm not sure about placement. I've seen a lot of diagrams and videos, but none of them are for uprights. I'd say the principle is the same, one mic on each side, but it seems like that kind of setup would favor the lowest and highest octaves while requiring a lot of volume automation in my DAW for the mid range. I've also seen a video where a guy suggests attaching them to the bottom of the lid and closing it if background noise is a concern (which between my HVAC system, traffic, and loud neighbors it is) but it seems like I'd have to do a bit of carving to keep it from crushing the cables, which I want to avoid.

[Mahesh]

@ThemainpianistBLR

 

Maybe you could help? 

[Tandem Unicycle]

It would probably be best to acquire some microphones that are intended to capture different frequency spectrums. Have a mic that captures low end nearer to the lower strings on the inside of the piano, as well as a mid range mic capturing the mid frequencies, and a high frequency mic capturing the high notes. 

 

Then mix according the the intention of that mic placement. This should cover at least all of the base necessities of capturing each portion of the piano. 

[themistero]

Its  hard to record a real piano. Its a beast compared to a line in keyboard. No matter what you do you'll fight issues in the mix. I recorded some piano recently and for me one mic was enough. My piano was pretty shitty (not well tuned/old)  so I really didn't try to capture it in all its glory. I placed a mic about a foot above and center. Then I worked on sculpting the EQ and some reverb afterwards. 

 

I think you really need to be in a treated room with a nice piano or all bets are off.