Building your first studio...

Hey Adrien, not a problem. I hope those tips came in useful! Thanks for all the support on Submit hub too, I really appreciate that!

I haven't actually used any of the Beyerdynamic DT series i'm afraid. I have just found this article though:

www.rtings.com

The Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO are slightly better critical listening headphones than the Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO thanks to their open-back design. Both headphones are similarly built and are comfortable. They are practically the same headphones, but the 990 are open and the 770 are closed-backs.

(I particularly love the photos of the "headshots" on the dummy's! Haha!

Maybe I'll grab myself a pair!

For an upright piano, open or closed, that depends. For me personally, I like the sound of the felt & hammers as I think it gives the piano & the recording some identity and character, so I always have it open. If you do too, i'd say place a pair of SCD's symmetrically in front of the hammers (usually over keys C3 & C6 as a left and right mic) and then maybe a middle/overhead mic in the centre to capture the mid-range. I run a pair of KM 184's with a Sontronics Apollo 2 right in the middle. It seems to work nicely for what i'm trying to capture anyway. If you prefer it without the hammer/felt sound, you can try opening the lid slightly with the same microphone placement as I mentioned before, and maybe place a microphone behind the piano in the middle to capture the soundboard from the rear. Seems to work well too. I haven't actually tried that technique for myself though!

I shall maybe create a separate post for how I approach the mixing and mastering as that's entirely dependent on the track! If I could give one pointer for working with piano recordings though, I'd say watch those mid-range/low frequencies as that's where you get the most problems (usually around 200-500Hz)! #muddymix

Hope this helps! :)