This celesta is a very old Mustel made in Paris and properly maintained and restored by skilled technicians in Milano.

We carefully made sure the tuning was the best possible and spent quite a bit of time experimenting with mic choice and positioning.

We ended up using a pair of AKG C414EB from the 70s for their silky and smooth sound as Spot mics and another trio of AKG 451E with CK22 omni capsules for the Decca perspective.

Then, we chose to record the Celesta with its cover removed in order to obtain a less boxy sound, something that is very often done when recording such instruments.

Nonetheless we emulate the effect of the cover inside our User Interface in case you’re looking for that boxier sound.

Heavenly Sounds

The recording techniques we chose allowed us for a very close and up-front sound as a Spot sound. Plenty of low end in the attack is available due to proximity effect in our mic placement.

The orchestral placement is easily achieved (in most presets) by cutting some low end with the on board EQ and adding the Decca channel.