Pipa
Chinese lute
- Range
- A2–D6
- Sources
- 33 independent: not from a mic maker
What it is
Four-string Chinese lute, pear-shaped, with 12 to 31 high frets; held upright (Wikipedia).
Range
A2 to about D64,5110 Hz – 1.17 kHz
Atlas Ensemble/VICO guide, assuming 29 frets: from A2 ('an octave and a minor third below middle C') to D6 ('two octaves and a major second above middle C'), almost 3.5 octaves; the extreme top is used little. Strings 3 and 4 are not normally played above fret 16 (a major 10th); strings 1 and 2 up to fret 29. Bends add up to a minor 3rd. (earlier: lowest open string; the top note is not sourced)
Tuning: Open strings A2 D3 E3 A3 (Atlas guide; Wikipedia). Fretted; written at pitch in bass and treble clefs.5
- 5-string pipa: Modern 5-string pipa adds a bass string tuned to E2 (E2 A2 D3 E3 A3) (Wikipedia).4
Where the sound goes
No source on direction. Production Expert: too close gives "too much plucking and not enough resonance".
About the range
Open strings A2 D3 E3 A3 (Wikipedia). The high frets let the player go well above A3; top note not sourced.
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 | |
|---|---|
| 85.7 dB | sound power level Lw, no distance; Pipa playing a scale at a set dynamic (the authors' representative value), reverberation chamber, two musicians on two pipas (Zhao et al., J. Tongji Univ. 2009)6 |
The representative (forte scale) sound power of a pipa is about 86 dB (85.7 dB, reverberation chamber study as quoted in a later paper).
Recording it
Production Expert used a Warm Audio WA-47jr about 2 ft in front. Mix: Blue Cactus plus a Neumann U 67 in the Forbidden City session. The Silk Road Ensemble toured with DPA mics on pipa (model not named in the article).
Mics
- 3 setups from 3 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 (3)
Studio
Close
- Blue Cactus1 source
- Neumann U 671 source
- Warm Audio WA-47jr1 source
The 2 setups behind this: placement and quotes
- Close Blue Cactus or Neumann U 67close/spot, ensemble session
Blue Cactus and Neumann U67 on the pipa.
1 - Close Warm Audio WA-47jrabout 2 ft in front
Warm Audio 47 jr about 2 feet in front; closer gave too much plucking, too little resonance (paraphrase).
2
On stage
The 1 setup behind this: placement and quotes
- Close DPA microphones, model not statedlive, touring ensemble
DPA mics used on all the strings and on gaita, shakuhachi, sheng, pipa and piano (Silk Road Ensemble tour).
3
Sources
- Mix: Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra at United Recording (engineer Brian Vibberts)
- Production Expert: How To Record Traditional Chinese Instruments - Expert Tutorial
- Mix: Silk Road Ensemble Hits Road with DPA (engineer Jody Elff)
- Wikipedia: Pipa
- Atlas Ensemble / VICO: Pipa (composer's guide by Moshe Denburg)
- Buildings 16(2) 331: Yue et al., Preference Evaluation of Reverberation Times for Traditional Inner Mongolian Musical Instruments in Performance Spaces (introduction cites Zhao's pipa sound-power study)