Piano is one of the most common instruments you can find in pop and in producing country music. It is also commonly found in ballads and adult contemporary music.
In this short guide, you will know how to properly mix a piano and apply panning/EQ/reverb techniques. The main objective is to let the piano tracks shine without causing any trouble with the rest of the instruments such as guitar and vocals.
This needs careful listening and adjustments of the most commonly used effects in audio mixing which are:
1.) EQ
2.) Compression
3.) Reverb
4.) Panning
Grand piano
EQ Tips on mixing piano
Piano is a wide range sounding instrument that spans from very low bass to very high frequencies. In most piano pieces used in country and pop music, it can be found somewhere in the middle frequencies.
If the piano is being used as an accompaniment, it can harder to mix that piano with vocals together and these two occupy the same frequency spectrum.
If you are planning to produce a song with piano, it would be much better to use chords than an arpeggio accompaniment. Chords are easier to deal with in the mix because the sound is played together. This is quite a common technique “Let it be” by Beatles.
To EQ the piano for best results:
a.) Cut -6dB 2000Hz or 3000Hz Q=1.4 (this will reduce frequency masking problems with the vocal and guitar frequencies)
You can cut up to -9dB if you find out that the piano piece is making the vocals unclear in the mix.
These EQ settings are not permanent for all piano mixing scenarios. They only serve as a starting guide in the EQ settings. It would be highly advisable to use a parametric EQ to find the “sweet spot” of any musical instruments.
b.) Apply a low shelf (cut) at 200Hz (this roll-off /attenuate all the frequencies below 200Hz while passing all piano frequencies above 200Hz)
The overall objective of this setting is to prevent the low piano bass frequencies from masking bass guitar and kick drum frequencies. So if you have a bass guitar and kick drums in your mix, this is an important setting.
This 200Hz can be adjusted between 100Hz and 250Hz depending on the piano track. Cutting much higher than 200Hz removes a lot of bass in the piano; which can be detrimental to the track especially if the piano has a lot of bass.
Otherwise if the mix consists of only a piano and vocals (from start to finish), then this is not necessary because you need the bass from the piano to support the song.
c.) Boost +2dB 6000Hz Q=1.0 – this EQ setting will add more gloss/shine to the piano tracks particularly in the intro and piano solo sections.
But if the entire piece of music is a piano solo (such as classical piano music pieces); there is no need to apply any EQ. If you find some tonal quality problems with a solo piano, do not fix it with EQ instead fix it during the recording of the solo piano. A lot of factors can influence the sound of the piano during recording:
1.) The size of the live room where the piano has been recorded. Larger rooms add more reverb. Smaller rooms have warmer sound.
2.) Microphone placement on the piano. Even specific microphone models can have a big impact on the sound of the recording.
3.) Acoustic room treatment of the room where the piano has been recorded. For example, if you place the piano at the corner of the room, it will tend to have more “bass” sound than if the piano would be recorded in the center of the room.
You can read the following articles below relating to room treatment and how it would influence the sound:
Absorption vs. Diffusion in Home Studio Acoustic Room Treatment.
Testing Room Acoustics and Analysis Tutorial for Home Recording Studio
Audio Compression Techniques for Piano
It is important to examine how you are going to use compression to get the desired sound for your piano. I received a user inquiry about compressing piano in the mix. Let’s talk about that here.
First, you need to determine the genre of the music where the piano is used. Different compression settings are often applied depending on the genre. For example, in classical piano music recordings; it is highly important that the dynamic range (difference between loud and soft) is high so this means that you will only apply very little or even no compression at all. This is common in classical piano pieces.
The truth is that the more you be applying compression, the lesser will be the difference between “loud” and “soft” parts in your recorded music. This significantly affects the dynamics of the piano recording which can be important.
A “smooth” compression setting (you can experiment this depending on your mix, so use your ear) in piano can be:
Threshold= -8.0dB
Compression ratio: 3.5:1
Attack time=10ms
Release time=1,000ms
Output gain= 0dB
This smooth setting is ideal if you need to apply only a little compression to the piano or keyboard tracks. However if you want a more aggressive compression (minimizing the difference between loud and soft in the piano tracks), which is common in pop, country and rock piano solos:
Threshold = -20dB
Compression ratio: 2:1
Attack time: 1ms
Release time: 25ms
Output gain=0dB
An even more “compressed” setting for piano is using the compression settings for the guitar:
Threshold= -20dB
Compression Ratio: 5:1
Attack time: 15ms
Release time: 15ms
Output gain= -6dB
This is a very useful setting if you are using the piano as a rhythm track which needs it to have a consistent and steady beat. This is commonly used in pop and new wave music.
Reverb in the mix
Reverb is a tricky matter. You might be tempted to apply a big reverb to all of your piano tracks regardless of the genre; simply because the piano sounds would sound good with it. This is not the correct method of applying reverb.
In this tutorial on how to apply reverb to a mix properly, there a lot of factors that could influence the reverb setting. Below are the situations:
1.) Piano placed on the far left and right of the stereo field will have more reverb that placed near the center.
2.) A middle and high range of the piano is more appropriate with high reverb setting than the bass notes of the piano.
3.) A fast tempo piano rhythm is appropriate with lower reverb settings.
The good news is that most piano recordings are made on big or spacious live rooms that naturally capture the reverberations. This is a common recording technique for classical piano. With this method implemented, you will not be needing to apply a reverb in your mix using plugins.
How to pan piano in the mix
Like most instrument such as drums, vocals and guitars, you also need to properly pan piano in the mix to be more effective.
Bear in mind that panning settings for piano in the mix is different for each intended use of piano, such that:
a.) If the piano is used as an accompaniment with other instruments playing along it (like guitars), then it is much advisable to pan piano around
Left: -45 to -55
Right: 45 to 55 units
Or in percent: 45% to 55% or -45% to -55%.
By panning it farther from the center, the piano will shine as an accompanying instrument and will not cause mud with other instruments near the center particularly the drums, bass guitar and vocals.
For high notes of the piano or in middle range, you can experiment panning it somewhere 65% to 75% for both left and right.
b.) If the piano is used as a solo instrument with no other instruments playing along it, it is much better to pan the entire piano tracks in the center (center =0).
c.) If the piano is used as a solo background instrument playing along with vocals, it is much better to pan the piano slightly off center (5 or units). This is applicable if the pianist wishes to play high notes along with vocals. If the piano background is purely chord based (no arpeggio playing), then it can be pan in the center.
Below are some very useful tutorials related to panning piano in the mix:
a.) Panning Instruments in a Mix-Getting Great Stereo Image using Reverb
b.) The Art of Two-Dimensional Audio Mixing: Front & Back
Content last updated on June 22, 2012