REQ: Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand
A truly remarkable virtual piano
The Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand places the user on the bench before the Yamaha CFX, an incredible concert grand piano characterized by a wide palette of tonal colors and the ability to create the most subtle, expressive nuances. This beautiful instrument is matched with the stunning acoustics of Abbey Road Studios’ legendary Studio One and the finest collection of microphones in the world.
All facets of this project – the instrument, the room, the mics, and the recording expertise – work together to create the finest sampled piano ever captured. Experience the passion reflected in every detail.
Microphone Perspectives
To expand your creative possibilities, Abbey Road Studios’ engineers created three discrete microphone perspectives: Classic, Contemporary, and Player.
Classic
The Classic perspective most faithfully captures the natural tonal character, clarity and nuance of the instrument.
Close – 2 x Neumann M49 and 2 x Neumann KM184 Microphones: As every piano, recording venue, repertoire and pianist are different, the M49 and KM184 are used to capture a close detailed sound, which is especially good for chamber music.
Mid Field/Wide – 2 x DPA 4006 Microphones: The DPA 4006’s placed at each end of the piano create a wider and more spacious sound picture.
Main – 2 x Neumann TLM50 Microphones: The Neumann TLM50 are placed 2m away from the instrument and at 2.6m in height. This captures the overall complex frequency response and dynamic range of a grand piano.
Contemporary
The Contemporary perspective creates a piano sound that is bright and hard with lots of attack from the hammers, but also maintains the piano’s warmth with intimate ambience.
Close – AKG C12 & D19 Microphones: The AKG C12 is a bright sounding valve microphone with bite and some nice valve warmth.The mono D19 placed in the centre over the hammers was run via a classic REDD.47 valve microphone preamp, adding central focus and ‘poke’ to the close sound of this set up.
Ambience – Schoeps MK 2H Microphones: For the Ambience microphones Schoeps MK 2H are used in a close position. They are able to bring the sound of the room to the mix, without losing too much of the definition of the piano’s initial attack.
Player
The Player perspective offers the experience of playing the CFX, from the piano bench, in Studio One, particularly when reproduced over high quality headphones.
Close – 2 x Neumann KM84 Microphones: This is a straight forward stereo pair placed closely and directly over the hammers. It provides an immediate sound of the piano with little coloration from the room.
Player – Neumann KU100 Dummy Head: The Binaural KU100 Dummy Head was placed directly behind the musicians head. This provides an intimacy to the instrument mixed with the unmistakable sense of playing the instrument in the acoustics of Studio One.
