Two dynamic mics close to the strings.

Yes. You can get that warm, slightly woolly upright piano sound live—like Julia Jacklin’s on She’s So High—without a church hall or a Neumann. The trick is keeping mics tight to the soundboard and forgetting open-lid condensers.

Uprights are boxy and bright. The warmness you hear on that record comes from capturing the piano’s body resonance, not the hammer attack. Use two SM57s (or Beta 56s if you want lower profile) and place them inside the piano, pointing at the soundboard through the holes in the metal frame. One over the bass strings near the top, one over the treble section toward the middle. Keep them about 2–3 inches off the board.

Angle them so they’re not pointing directly at the hammers—you want the thud of the felt hitting the string, not the slap. If the piano has a lid that can be opened, close it. The lid’s reflection adds harshness. Alternatively, pull the piano out from the wall a foot so the low end can breathe.

In the mix, roll off a little high end (around 7 kHz) and add a subtle compression to even out the dynamic jumps. That’s it. The mic placement does 90% of the work.

You’re not buying a $2,000 ribbon mic for this. The mics you already have will do fine. That warmth is in the proximity effect and the felt, not the