Piano placement - Almost there!
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The piano gets moved tomorrow!!
On the advice of someone in the earlier placement thread, today I stood in the new piano room with a Bluetooth speaker and tried pointing it in different directions. It’s pretty hard to simulate an acoustic instrument but it seemed like it sounded better with the speaker pointing at the door opening rather than at the wall, so that’s the placement I’ll have them start with.
Stay tuned (har) for updates!
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That speaker is a great idea.
I am considering a Schimmel vertical. The 5'11" grand I had was too much.
The action on my Kawai Hybrid is too stiff. I do love to play with headphones. My place is on the path people take to walk along the river and I my stage fright is bad enough that I don't like blasting the world. I think that grand could be heard in on both coasts. -
@AdagioM said in Piano placement - Almost there!:
Exactly right! Looks like it’s quite at home there. Is there another chair (or something) on the right side of the second picture?
AdagioM, I think what you’re seeing was boxes — which I have now emptied! I unpacked all my music books today
Here are a few more pics:
ETA: For the record, that shelf is not all of my music books. There’s a shelf full of music books behind the piano and another in my home office
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@wtg said in Piano placement - Almost there!:
Was it the first placement you tried, or the end result of a bunch of different attempts?
WTG, basically the first I tried. I was pretty confident that this placement would be the best option. But also, I was not confident in the movers and I wanted them to get done with the piano rather than have them move the piano around so I could experiment. If the piano was not on a rug it might have been easier…
I’m actually going to write a separate thread about the piano movers. Let’s just say I was not impressed
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Well, with all the unpacking, I haven't had much time to play yet, but I think it's a little loud and a little harsh right now. I can't tell yet if that will be resolved by tuning (and adding some art and things to the walls)... Or if we'll have to reposition it.... I'll be sure to report back!
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I've played my piano in its new home for maybe three days in a row now. It's a little on the loud side, but I think it sounds ok where it is. There are a few more things in the room now, and I'll add art to the walls as well, so all of that should help as well.
But it really needs to be tuned, so I scheduled an appointment for next Wednesday with a new tuner. He was the head piano technician here at the school of music until he retired and now he tunes independently part time. I got a good feeling on the phone when we were discussing the challenges I've had with the piano and its most recent tuning which I didn't like (too shimmery). He said he would tune it for me and then stick around while I played so we can talk about how it sounds, and whether it needs to be voiced.
I'll give an update after his tuning!
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I've been thinking about your room and the fact that you aren't loving the sound of the piano. Your room already has some good acoustical qualities (like its non-rectangular shape) but I think because the whole downstairs is open and all hard flooring, the sound is definitely going to be more overwhelming than what you're used to.
Before you do anything drastic like move the piano or voice the hammers, I'd try making some basic acoustic panels -- something like this, made from the 2" insulation type stuff you can get at home depot and covered in some kind of pretty fabric, would make a huge difference in the room. You can use command strips to experiment with the best place to hang them. I actually think if you used shapes and colors that mimic the square design of the rug, it could look like an amazing and very intentional design element while also taming the piano's sound a LOT.
Here's some instructions on how to make them: https://bettersoundproofing.com/diy-acoustic-panels/
And here (hopefully, if I did it right) are some photos to show you what I mean:
Incidentally, depending on what you make them out of, they can also double as corkboards so you can tack concert bills, photos, etc. to them if you want more of a casual office look.
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Ooh, interesting! Thank you!
Re the material, does it need to be that insulation material? Could it be just foam pads, and then covered with some nice fabric?
I'm assuming the point is that, it needs to not be framed artwork with glass fronts, since that will just be more reflective. And I'm guessing that just a fabric wall hanging wouldn't suffice because the thickness of the foam pad is probably a key piece of the equation, right?
Ok, wait, I'll go read that article you linked.
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The most available material to make these out of will be acoustic ceiling (T-bar ceiling) tiles. You can buy them individually in a lot of places.
The STC rating is what to look for. The higher the better.
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Piano looks great! I think you’ll like having the light come in over your shoulders.
