Arvo Pärt – Creator Spiritus, Theatre Of Voices, Ars Nova Copenhagen Dir. Paul Hillier With Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, Organ, NYYD Quartet. This is a hybrid SACD published by Harmonia Mundi in 2012.
Most Realistic Recordings
I was recently listening to my daughter practice the piano and I was enjoying quite a full-body sonic experience. I later went to my system and picked out a few piano recordings that I suspected were recorded well, but as I listened, I just didn't have anything close to the same experience. The piano just didn't sound right, nor nearly as full as I had just experienced while listening to my daughter. I know what pianos sound and feel like. I grew up playing many different types and understand their differences. I've done some research on recording pianos and have learned they are particularly difficult to record well.
As I've delved deeper into this audio hobby/interest and acquired more respectable gear, the more general question that keeps coming to my mind is this: How did this music sound at the time it was recorded? (presuming it was a person playing an instrument, not something "mixed" or electronic). Meaning, if I had been in the room, would I have heard or felt the same? Or is there something about the recording setup/micing/mixing/etc. that has failed to capture the moment? Or has the audio engineer intentionally filtered some of that out?
Now, being an audiophile (i.e., a music lover) has many paths and many goals. For me, I love lots of different kinds of music and am not too caught up in the ever changing landscape of audio gear and the need to try something new. I hope to get to the point where a well-captured recording sounds realistic in my room on my system. I like full-spectrum sound (i.e., if the note/sound is in the track, I want to hear it). I know that accurate, realistic reproduction through any system is depends a great deal on the equipment and the room it's being played back in. I don't expect my system to give me that jaw-dropping "I'm there" experience (yet), but some day I hope to get there.
So, to my question above, I would very much love to hear if anyone feels they have heard an album, a track, a recording of some kind that could be used to test out the "realism" of one's system. What would you say is a recording that more accurately captured the sonic hologram of the moment it was performed. Any genre is ok. And if you think a particular studio/company does this well, I'd love to hear about it!
And, please, I don't want the conversation to about gear or room treatment. This is about the recording itself, the source material, and how accurately the entire moment is captured and preserved. I respect everyone's personal experiences with your system, whatever it's comprised of. So, please don't argue with each other about whether a recording didn't sound realistic to you when it sounded realistic to someone else. Let's be civil and kind, for how can you deny what someone else's ears have heard? Thank you! I'm excited to learn from you all!
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Im sort of shocked no one has mentioned three companies who specialized in this and achieved some commerical success: Telarc and the modern ioteraction of Telarc: Five Four Productions. This was Michael Bishop (chief engineer) who won more grammies for high resolution recording thatn jsut about anyone. He has many many incredible recordings in his catalog, such as Hiromi, and Eric Bibb- two that stick out to me as incredibly realistic. Just go to Discogs and search for Michael Bishops Another David Cheske, he used a SOundField mic for many years and did live single mic SoundField recordings of major orcehstras and organists in famous rooms. He was about capturing he ambience and experiecne of the performance. George Masenburg, a few mentioned his Little Feat recording but I think all of them were great. He also did NIckel Creek, and quite a number of other bands- also recordng LInda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Extra ordinary. He hated colored mics and preamps, and used the most neutral gear possible so his recordings represent clarity and realism. Al Schmidt: He was a engineers engineer and recorded many great artists at Capitol such as Diana Krall and Jane Monheit. He would spend days on mic placement and had perhaps one of the best rooms in LA to use all the time: Studio A at Capitol. It had Nat King Coles Piano in it and Nelsn Riddles famous chair and bandstand. Another great: Mark Waldrep, and amazng engineer and the guy behind Real HD AUDIO. I met him on Jennifer Warnes recording and loaned him a mic. He's recorded an enormous catalog of outstanding music. Find him on realhd-audio.com Then Direct to Disc, refined and developed by Doug Sax and Bill Schnee. These guys started Sheffield Labs and did some of the most realistic recordings ever. Thelma Huston and Lincoln Mayorga, wow.. Bill also recorded quite a few other killer sounding records, Steely Dan among them. Bill was someone that people called to get a GREAT sound. Search for the great engineers above to find huge back catalogs of great recordings. Recording [tracking+mixing] Engineers are the ones most responsible for a great recording as Musicians are focused on the pereformance, their intruments, not whats happening in the control room. There were a few musicans who could do both, Alan Parsons comes to mind, but its a short list. Brad Lone Mountain/ATC |
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I am also a fan of Sheffield, M&K, Telarc, Chesky, Clarity, Three Blind Mice, Proprius, Astree, etc. They do great jobs engineering, recording and mastering. But, there are plenty of examples of "ordinary" records with extraordinary sound. I have a David Peabody album named "Americana" that I would put up against anything when it comes to making it sound like the singers and musicians are in the room. Particularly, listen to the track "Sewing Machine Blues." This is typically a less than $10 record on Discogs, so it is not like hunting down original Blue Notes. |
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