Guzheng
Chinese zither
- Range
- D2–D6
- Sources
- 43 independent: not from a mic maker
What it is
Chinese plucked zither with 21 (most common), 25 or 26 strings over movable bridges, about 1.6 m long, paulownia soundboard, played with finger picks (Wikipedia). Strings are tuned to a pentatonic scale; the left hand presses behind the bridges to bend notes.
Range
about D2 to about D6573.4 Hz – 1.17 kHz
21-string zheng in the basic D pentatonic tuning: string 1 D2 to string 21 D6 (Atlas guide gives piano-key numbers D18 to D66, with A25 = 110 Hz). The low D can be tuned down and the high D up by a half-tone. Bending behind the bridges adds pitches in between. This confirms the earlier estimate.
Tuning: Basic tuning pentatonic D E F# A B repeating each octave; bridges movable, each string retunable by about a half-tone either way. Atlas guide: intonation in China is 'mostly just, not equi-tempered'.5
- 16-string folk zheng: Smaller zhengs with 16 notes exist for traditional folk repertoire (Atlas guide); no range given.5
Where the sound goes
Most fullness comes from the soundhole underneath (Production Expert). A test of positions at 15 degree steps at 50 cm found the two best spots were right in front of the guzheng and under it (Zhang et al. 2017, as reported by the UBC blog). DPA: a pair of overheads gives "too wide an image", so use one.
About the range
The 21-string runs as four pentatonic octaves, about D2 to D6 (estimate; a search summary stated this, but I could not confirm it on a page). The page I opened (Wikipedia) gives only "major pentatonic".
Names
Zheng, gu zheng, Chinese zither or lap harp.
How loud
Sound pressure level measurements as published. Different kinds of figure (a playing level, a peak, a dose at the player's ear) can't be compared with each other, and neither can figures at different distances.
| Sound power | |
|---|---|
| 85.9 dB | sound power level Lw, no distance; Zheng (Chinese zither), two senior musicians on their own instruments in a reverberation chamber; mean forte sound power when playing a scale6 |
The mean forte sound power of a zheng playing a scale is about 86 dB (two players, reverberation chamber, from the paper's abstract).
Recording it
DPA: single overhead (4015A wide cardioid) at head height, centred. Or close: two miniature omnis (SMK4061 kit) on surface mounts at the deck, to the right of the bridges seen from the player and mid-instrument. Production Expert: Shure KSM44 (cardioid) directly underneath, and a small capsule over the plucking area if more channels were free. Mix: Blue Hummingbirds in ORTF. UBC: small-diaphragm studio condensers, in front and underneath.
Mics
- 6 setups from 4 sources, 3 of them independent of any mic maker.
- On top: the mics more than one source names for this instrument, in any role, the most named first. That is a count of sources, not our verdict.
- In the full list, each mic shows how many sources name it for that role, and how many of those come from a mic maker.
No mic is named by more than one source yet: each names its own.
All the mics sources name, by setting and role (5)
Studio
Overhead
- DPA 4015A1 source from its own maker
Close
- DPA SMK4061 Stereo Mic Kit (miniature omnis) (variant of the DPA 4061)1 source from its own maker
Stereo pair
Bottom
- Shure KSM441 source
The 5 setups behind this: placement and quotes
- Overhead DPA 4015Aoverhead, single mic at head height, centred
One overhead mic picks up the timbre and dynamics; 4015A at performer head height, centred (paraphrase).
1 - Close 2 × DPA SMK4061 Stereo Mic Kit (miniature omnis) (variant of the DPA 4061)close, surface-mounted on deck, right of string bridges and mid-instrument
Surface-mount the omnis at the deck, right of the bridges seen from the player, and in the middle (paraphrase).
1 - Main pair or array 2 × Blue Hummingbirdstereo pair
Blue Hummingbird mics in an ORTF stereo pair for the guzheng.
2 - Bottom Shure KSM44under the instrument (soundhole side)
Shure KSM44 in cardioid directly underneath each instrument; clean, handles dynamic range, good off-axis rejection (paraphrase).
3 - Close small-diaphragm condenserclose, in front of and under the instrument
Zhang et al. (2017) found the best two positions are right in front of and under the guzheng (paraphrase).
4
On stage
Close
- DPA 4099 CORE+1 source from its own maker
The 1 setup behind this: placement and quotes
- Close DPA 4099 CORE+close, two on deck edge about 30 cm apart
Two 4099 CORE+ mounted on the deck edge about 30 cm apart, capsules angled towards strings (paraphrase).
1
On stage
DPA: two 4099 CORE+ on the deck edge, about 30 cm apart, capsules angled towards the strings.
Sources
- DPA Mic University: How to mic the gu zheng (Chinese lap harp)
- Mix: Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra at United Recording (engineer Brian Vibberts)
- Production Expert: How To Record Traditional Chinese Instruments - Expert Tutorial
- UBC Communicating Science blog: guzheng recording (cites Zhang et al. 2017)
- Atlas Ensemble / VICO: Zheng (composer's guide by Moshe Denburg)
- Applied Acoustics (Yingyong Shengxue) 28(5): Wu et al., Sound power level measurement of Chinese Zither (English abstract, Consensus record)