Hi all
Did a live stream thing last night (only a couple of songs as part of a charity Christmas event) playing piano (sound check video below just for fun) and it was nice, good fun. However I encountered some annoyances getting it all ready. One of which was my mics picking up the mechanical clunking of my keyboard keys, which was incredibly annoying. Some of it is my keyboard having really loud keys and being a bit flimsy (i'm working on that, probably looking to purchase something with quieter keys although I don't think I'll get something that sounds as nice for my budget) but from my other thread which turned into a bit of a rant from me, it seemed the suggestion was that I needed to get a more directional mic.
I tried my TC Helicon MP75 (which is super-cardioid dynamic), a Marantz Pro MPM-1000 (cardioid condenser), and a Shure PG58 (caridoid dynamic, I think similar to SM58). I used the Shure in the end but in honesty they all sounded the same, with the same problem. I used a sort of clip on screen thing on the mic to try and reduce it, stuffed with acoustic foam between the mic and the shield thing, but that didn't really make any difference.
So what mics should I be looking at considering none of the above worked? Somebody suggested the Rode Procaster but that seems to have the same pickup pattern (cardioid) so I'm not sure why it would be better? I'm a low rent kind of guy but please share all ideas and prices because if I get anywhere with performing on the piano at any point, it could be worth a bigger investment.
Or is there a better way to set it up to help? It's different than playing guitar and singing at the same time because the mic literally needs to be above the keyboard which seemed to not help. When I recorded stuff before that was me playing acoustic and singing there was no issue, it's literally just for piano.
Just a bit lost and confused because there are (and always have been) loads of piano playing singers, and I've googled as much as I can and I can't seem to do anything differently. I'm just a bit concerned that I go out and buy a new keyboard and have exactly the same problem, or only a slight reduction.
Here's my soundcheck example from last night (I didn't perform this song but it's a good warm up song for the voice and checking levels etc:
Thank you in advance
Comments
You could probably get away with just turning everything up a bit and drown it out more.
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youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
I suspect if you turn the mic gain down it will stop picking up the key clicks
If I turn the mic gain down it's too quiet on the computer. So I turn the gain up on the interface, and bang the clunks are back
I tried finding what frequency it was when I was messing about with recordings of it at but the only freq that cuts it down also affected my vocals, It wasn't a bassy sound. I did give away a rack eq unit thing before for free, which seems a mistake in hindsight if that could have worked. Again I'm wary of purchasing an EQ unit only to find it doesn't help or causes other problems, as it did with the DAW plug in
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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You might be hearing it more than anyone else
You're ears can do weird things.
If it's this loud when played quietly, it's going to be worse at volume
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Yeah sorry, as poopot says, vocal gain down, everything up.
Re my singing, my louder voice isn't very nice and I don't like it. That's why I sing quietly and with my mouth quite closed
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
fair enough.
Turning the keyboard up shouldn't make the clunking louder?
I mean if the output of my vocals and keyboard were amplified, the clunks would be really loud through a PA for example and much more apparent
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic