# Solo piano recordings where the piano is off-center



## AndorFoldes (Aug 25, 2012)

Recently I have come across some recordings for solo piano where the piano has not been placed in the center of the stereo image. In really early stereo recordings this may be written off as experimentation on the part of the engineers. But this issue can also be found in much more recent recordings.

At the bottom of my post I have attached an example that is less than ten years old, the first movement of the Hammerklavier from the Bavouzet Beethoven piano sonata cycle, where the piano is clearly balanced more to the left than the right.

Apart from the intuitive argument of keeping things balanced, I can think of a few good reasons to never record the piano off-center. First of all the perceived volume level of the recording will be the highest when both left and right channels are as loud as possible. Furthermore, both ears should be stimulated equally in any recording, or the aural experience will not be as rich as it could be.

I leave you with the following questions:

• Why would anyone make a solo piano recording and not place the piano in the center?
• Who wants a solo piano recording where the piano is not in the center?
• Is there any good reason not to put the piano in the center?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Sorry, but I don't hear anything off-center from the above clip.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I agree with Bulldog. It sounds nicely centered, in fact, there's a nice stereo spread from L to R.

Perhaps your speakers are not balanced correctly, or
maybe your EQ is rolling off either the bass or the treble, which could make it seem unbalanced, or
maybe you're losing some hearing in one ear, or 
if you're losing your high frequencies through some minor hearing loss, that would make one channel (the one with the lower frequencies) seem louder.


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## AndorFoldes (Aug 25, 2012)

@Bulldog and @pianozach, thank you for your interesting answers!

Could you perhaps describe in more detail how you perceive the balance in the recording?

Here is another recording of the same movement. Do you hear any difference in the balance of this recording and the Bavouzet recording?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Both balances sound fine to me. There might be a little more emphasis on the higher octaves in Jando's recording. Bavouzet has the richer sound.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I hear something quite different in the mixing of these two recordings.

IN the first, the piano seem up close and large, and in the second it seems quite further away, almost tiny, and almost monophonic - everything is pointedly center.

I prefer the mixing of the first video, where the spread of the piano is almost as if I am sitting at the piano.

But they both seem fairly center.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Both recordings are pretty poor recordings. The engineers have attempted to create a stereo spread between the high notes and the low notes with separate miking -- which sounds great on headphones, but can lead to a 12' wide piano on speakers -- however, in both cases the miking of the lower half of the soundboard gives no resonance below 100Hz, so the piano sound is really unrealistic.

Compare:













Incidentally, one good reason for placing a piano off-center in the sound stage would be to emphasize hall acoustics, something all too rarely done.


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## AndorFoldes (Aug 25, 2012)

@NoCoPilot, thank you for sharing your informative thoughts.

The Chandos Bavouzet recording does sound pretty bright, and maybe the lack of lower frequencies skews the perception of stereo balance? I don't hear that problem as much in the Jando performance, although the sound is less polished, perhaps a result of being a 1980s budget recording.

The Bavouzet recording is really clear though. It makes me wonder if perhaps the engineers wanted the instrument to sound more similar to historical instruments that have become more common for Beethoven performance.

The examples you linked all have darker sounding pianos, although there seems to be some distortion in the last example. Overall I probably prefer the sound in the Barenboim recording out of the five.

One would think that recording a piano would be significantly easier and more straightforward than a full orchestra, but maybe that is not the case.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

AndorFoldes said:


> One would think that recording a piano would be significantly easier and more straightforward than a full orchestra, but maybe that is not the case.


Perhaps because of this there is more variation in how engineers approach the task.









Unusual Piano Recordings


Good piano recordings all converge on about the same sound. Main mic about 6-8" from the strings, another ambient mic(s) picking up ambience. Piano freshly tuned. Player silent. Makes me want to hear something different (anarchist that I am). La cathédrale engloutie recorded in a cave...




www.talkclassical.com


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