Yes, you certainly can.
I’ll bet they are, really. You just manage not to notice them while playing. Microphones have a habit of picking up EXACTLY what’s happening though 
I’d prefer to mic an upright from behind. If you really can’t pull it away from the wall, just drop a mic down behind, slightly to the treble side of centre. Yes, I know this is TERRIBLY “wrong”
You know what I mean. They’re not audible to my ears as I play. Unfortunately in this case, the mic is far more sensitive than my ears. As far as dropping a mic down behind the piano, do you mean without the mic stand? Should it stand up or lean against something? I have my doubts about wedging the mic between the piano and wall because of what kind of funky reverb effects I might get. I’m always up for new ideas, though. Looks like I won’t be getting a Soundcloud account for a few days, since I’m having certain internet problems. 
I am really having a hard time deciding if I like the Bass or Ambience pattern better, they both have their pros and cons. This is one of those cases where I would really like the notepad feature in C6!
Great job in trying all sorts of ways to hear the results. This is soooo important to understanding where the strengths of your equipment are. It doesn’t surprise me that your ambient placement is one of your favs with a hyper-cardioid mic.
One thing you could try if as you pull away the sound “thins out” (meaning less bass correct?) is: You found the distance that works well. Now lower the mic closer to the floor and bring it higher. You will find the bass will come up the lower you place your mic.
If the room sound is interfering with what you want, take a mic stand with a boom, extend the boom as far out as it goes and place the end of the boom into the mic clip of a regular upright mic stand, creating a clothes line to hang a duvet or comforter on to eat up some of the room. If you have enough mic stands, or can rig up something to “SAFELY” hold these temporary absorbers, you can place them flanking the piano to tighten up the sound.
Regarding different placements: OK, so we know you are limited on what you have on hand to use. GREAT! This presents options on how to deal with sound once it is recorded. Certain placements will lend themselves to EQ more than others. The same goes for compression. You will probably find that with distant placements you have more room sound in the recording. Compression and eq on room mics can be tricky to keep the natural sound of the instrument. With closer placements, there will be less room sound present. Eq and compression to refine the sound you recorded “should” be easier and more natural sounding depending on how you approach it. You do have to get the best of whatever placement you use, so time must be spent placing, recording, listening back, EQng, compressing… In the context of a mix, a nearer placed microphone will be more present which works well for dense mixes and a roomy sound would fit well in a more open mix, or if the instrument is to be “out of focus”
Question for you: The distance away you found you liked it the most… is it 6-8’ away?
Have a look at the CO1’s plot:
Look at it’s 180º plot. See that bump between 3 and 15kHz? That is additive to the 0º. So, if you have a reflection coming 180º and if it is also out of phase with the 0º, you will comb filtering, so be careful. If it is in-phase with the 0º, you will get a boost in this region of the eq depending on the level of the 180º is.
I doubt you’ll find room for a stand! Wrap it in a piece of foam if you like. Just get it close to the sound-board and make sure it won’t rattle.
A very common way of miking a grand piano is to stick a SM58 on a cloth or piece of foam into one of the circular holes on the sound-board. You’ll see them stuffed under the bridge of a double bass too. It’s hardly a purist technique! But it captures the sound of the instrument close-up, with good separation and minimal mechanical noise.
Don’t tell me why it WON’T work! Just try it. Only takes a few seconds.
Wow, interesting suggestions.
@ Laurence Payne, I do think this is a pretty standard technique, as the SOS article I was reading suggested something similar. I will try this with several variations to see if I can’t get a unique sound out of it. I wonder if we will get the effect Woodcrest Studios described in his second post in this thread.
@Woodcrest Studio, I need a professional like you at my house!! 
I really like the idea of lowering the mic to the floor and pointing it up, thus capturing the ambient feel I have in that recording as well as the piano’s power that’s noticeable in the other. Also, louder audio will take out my mic’s hiss and it will be far enough to minimize the key clicks–obviously, the best of all worlds. I actually have been placing it roughly 5-6’ away from the hammers and all. Do you think it would be a good idea to compress it? I wasn’t really planning on it in order that I could emphasize changes in the dynamics of the performance. This is indeed going to be the only instrument in the mix (no vocals either).
@ Mr. Larry, like Split said earlier, you’d think by info online that I was getting a Cardioid pattern, but once you look in the manual you find out that it’s hyper. I actually thought until I looked it up I was getting an omni, because I didn’t know that cardioid was a pickup pattern. Indeed I might should’ve studied a little bit more before making the purchase, but as Woodcrest said, no time for regrets. I may actually get a unique sound with less than ideal equipment.
I might actually have time to try some of these new ideas as soon as the Super Bowl goes off. 
Then-it’s play time!! 
Alright, as you can see, I finally joined soundcloud! Here is the alternation of the ambient test I did, except this time I used Woodcrest Studio’s suggestions. Next time I set up, I’m gonna give the back of the piano a shot.
[disabled]
This is a private track, I hope you can get in!
Oops, looks like we can’t find that page!
I think you have to right click then open in new tab and log into your soundcloud account. Give that a shot! Otherwise, I’ll have to make it public.
I’m logged in and it can’t find the page 
Alright, should work now. Had to make it public. 
BTW, I’m followin ya Strophoid! 
Sounds interesting.
Distant and roomy. Pretty bright room too. Is it me or is it right-hand heavy? Since it is really roomy sounding, I would put a pillow behind the mic to protect the rear node from getting reflections as a precautionary step.
You didn’t have to take my suggestion I was just asking since upright pianos are about 5’ wide, if your fav spot was 6-8 feet away is because hyper-cardioid mics have a centered pickup pattern of 80-90º. So, if you pulled the mic back 6-8 feet, you would capture the entire instrument in balance (theoretically) depending on the microphone and preamp’s response.
It’s a starting point I use for a barometer.
Another approach, which may change the dynamics of your playing, is to play to the room. The room is your audience. I know this may sound weird, but ask the room in your head (not out loud for god’s sake) how it wants you to play and play “feeling” that. If you can get into it, you join the room with your piano. You should feel it too, the room’s sweet spot with the dynamics of your playing and still be expressive in the performance.
For instance, here, I have a lot of gobos, wooden accordion walls, plate glass, ceramic tile boards and other things more esoteric to affect the room’s response to whatever is playing in it. The room sings with trumpets when the tile boards are down. Acoustics like an accordion wall set at certain angles for an open roomy sound or quarantined with strategically placed sound absorbers, poly-diffusers and glass plate for a cool sounding early reflection sound.
Every room has a sound that can be exploited. And to exploit it comes down to what you have on hand to do so. If you have no materials, you do have the dynamics of the playing or where the instrument sits in the room and these relationships with where the mic is sitting.
Listen, I am not the end-all be-all super hero recording dude. I learn stuff all the time and a large part of that comes from experimenting and doing crazy sheit (sober!) almost daily. I read about the placement over and behind the head in the thread and that’s a good idea Split is a really knowledgable person and a goof too, so watch what he says closely.
If I were you, I would work on a straight-line plain with your mic. Keep it at a set height and move it forward and back on a single line. Make big distance changes and note the sonic differences (as many as you can) then refine to smaller ones till you find the sweet spot. The big moves will show your ear major differences and this will increase the sensitivity of your ears to hear smaller differences.
Yup, that was a lot! Oh, and play to the room too
Yup what Woodcrest says
Are you going to post the mic down the back test? that would be interesting.
The room is very obvious and like we said earlier, if you can tame it with whatever comes to hand (blankets and stuff) may have beneficial results.
And like Tom says the more directional mics do have a pronounced pickup from directly behind the mic so just to reinforce the advice of a pillow or whatever directly behind.
I actually quite like it, but its probably a bit ott, oh and does that piano need a tune?
I am not the end-all be-all super hero recording dude.
Nonsense, of course you are 
Yes, there’s lots of room in there! Can we hear a closer recording with that mic (even if you do feel there’s too much mechanical noise)? And what about the dynamic mic you mention in your very first post? Can we hear a recording using that?
Thanks again for the suggestions. Probably what is sounding like “the room” is probably the little bit of reverb I put on it. Do you want the raw recording instead? Since I know the effects I’m going to put in
there, I normally go ahead and monitor the different positions with the effects on. I hope to have some more recordings for you by the end of the day.
Just got an email that Strophoid’s followin me now. Stalkah!!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25954546/piano%20test.zip
Four rapidly recorded wav files. Normalised to -1, otherwise un-processed. First three are my Bechstein upright, against the wall in a carpeted and furnished room. Nice tone, recently tuned, but rather noisy action. Recorded simultaneously through three different mics that were handy.
- SM58 dropped down the back.
- Rode NT1, 6ft in front.
- Cheap Chinese valve mic set to omni, 1 ft in front.
The strange noise is me humming as I play. I find it very hard not to, and it can be the deal-breaker when deciding where a mic goes
- is a Kurzweil PC2X
Cool. I’m gonna put those in Cubase to get a closer look, or listen rather. Nice and very quiet (no hissing) except for your humming. 
My piano was last tuned about 7 months ago, does it need another round?
Could have been quieter, but I played VERY safe with recording levels , and though the noise floor is pretty low with today’s gear, it’s still there!