Managing Dynamic Velocity & Sympathetic Soundboard Resonance
Editing an acoustic grand piano presents challenges unlike almost any other acoustic source due to the continuous ringing of the soundboard and sympathetic string vibrations. When an artist holds down the sustain pedal, every string in the instrument vibrates sympathetically with the struck notes. Splicing between takes during an active sustain pedal cycle will abruptly terminate or alter that reverberant body of sound, immediately alerting the listener to an edit. In this ledger, we document the strict protocol of identifying harmonic lulls or transient strike points where crossfades hide beneath initial hammer impacts, preserving the organic acoustic field.
— David Kelling, Senior Tracking & Editorial Engineer“An edited piano take must breathe with the instrument's entire cast-iron frame; if you cut across a decaying chord without matching sympathetic ring, the room collapses.”
Multitrack Micro-Crossfading Across Triple-Microphone Arrays
Close-mic pairs situated inside the rim pick up crisp high-velocity hammer strikes, whereas distant room mics capture late reflections and low-frequency bass buildup from the soundboard bottom. Any comp cut executed across grouped playlists must be edited simultaneously with linked phase groups. A 3-millisecond shift between close spot mics and wide ribbons can completely wash out middle C fundamentals.
By locking playlist edit groups in the DAW and logging every candidate bar against our observable parameters, editors maintain absolute dynamic parity. The result is a master performance that sounds like a continuous, unhindered interpretation while capturing the peak emotional delivery of every passage.