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RE: What IS it about live sound? The Question

I made my piano recordings using a two track Tandberg, 7.5 IPS on 1/4" tape. It was necessary to keep the recording levels low, so it was possible to hear tape hiss up close to the tweeters. I would say this tape format was marginal for reproducing a live piano, in this case a 7 foot Steinway B. I also tried using a Nak CR-7a cassette deck. This did not cut it at all, even with metal tape. Without Dolby enabled the tonality was OK, but there was no possible record level setting that preserved dynamics without excessive tape hiss. Dolby completely trashed the recording naturalness, even with the deck in perfect calibration. (Indeed, I believe this applies to all variants of Dolby compression, even the professional Dolby A.) I found that the piano recordings I made could transfer transparently in 96/24 PCM format, but not at 44/24 or 44/16 format. This also applies to piano recordings made on a Steinway D in Jordan Hall, Boston, using the standard recording setting used by the NEC recording department. (Also, these were 2T 7.5 IPS 1/4" format, made on an Ampex 354.)

While it may not be possible to get the full "you are transported to the concert hall" effect with a two channel stereo recording, it is definitely possible to get full undistorted dynamics and tonality at concert hall volume levels, even for Mahler symphonies. (I've not heard the 8th live, most most of the rest at one time or another.) Most commercial orchestral recordings are hopeless in this regard. There are whole record labels that I avoid for symphonic music because the engineers and producers are either clueless or are aiming at a different market segment of the music listening public than I represent.


Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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  • RE: What IS it about live sound? The Question - Tony Lauck 03/14/1609:32:55 03/14/16 (0)

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