Saturday, April 18. 2009Things have been rather quiet…
… for the last couple of weeks on the Stuart front, hence my lack of activity on this blog – I gave myself a bit of a break from serious Stuarting after my recital. Easter was a busy period, not the least because David was organising the music for the Easter vigil mass close to where we live and consequently there were copious rehearsals, arranging, practicising and other organisational tasks etc to be done, all of which took up much time and effort on both our behalfs.
Nonetheless, it went off very well and all of the musicians and choir did a sterling job under the circumstances. I played keyboard and organ, and considering I’ve been doing these things for while now I was able to adjust quickly when soloists didn’t quite come in at the right time … Especially one time when the hymn stopped but the soloist kept going with the next verse – these little things do test you at times. In fact, I picked it up very quickly and no-one really noticed any difference! On the Stuart front, I need to get back and do what I planned to do before and refine the recordings that I’ve made over the last couple of months, as well as developing a bit more repertoire for future recitals. I would like to explore some Schumann and Brahms, two composers I haven’t really got my teeth into for a while now, and there is some very interesting music from the former Soviet republics that I will look at as well. It really is a question of time – how much of it, to be precise. I’m probably going to need to improve my time management in order to get everything done that I need to – and that is not going to be easy for someone of my limited organisational skills. One thing I have found is that having to focus on performing again has really sharpened my mind and made me concentrate much more on the sounds I am hearing. When you play only for yourself, you tend to hear what you want to hear, but when other people are involved, for some reason or other you need to consider very carefully what your audience is hearing and that adds an extra dimension to your interpretation, which cannot be a bad thing. As I said previously, I’m much more relaxed sitting at the piano now, and my task is to carry that into any recordings or recitals I do in the future. Fortunately, the piano makes that much easier than you would think. Saturday, April 4. 2009Another successful function ...
… in that I hosted a marvellous group of people for a lunch and recital which once again raised a good deal of money for the Bo Children’s Hospital project.
Three of my students played, each very well given the pressures that are on any performance in front of an audience, and for my own part I felt somewhat more relaxed and confident about what I was playing that I did last time. I played a variety of music dating from 1530 to the present day, in a variety of styles, moods and sounds, and overall was able, once again, to demonstrate to full range of effects and musicality that this piano allows me to do. Much of what I did was tailored to the piano in a number of ways, and the sounds I produced could not, in all honesty, have been produced on any other piano other than a Stuart. Food-wise, everyone brought a plate of something and, added into what we prepared ourselves, the resultant quantity of food was still too much for us all, whilst the quality was quite exceptional. I plan to expand these occasions not so much in terms of the number of people involved (although there were a number who would have liked to come but had other commitments) but certainly more events and variety of music, always however with a focus on the Stuart piano. I would like to think that I can put on at least another three before the end of the year, and I’m confident that the support is there for me to do that. Speaking of which, the sound was, as usual, quite superb. The instrument, as I have said many times now, has really settled into a groove and is a real pleasure to play, and from what I was told, a real pleasure to listen to. It is certainly gratifying from my perspective that I’m still, after all these years, able to perform to quite a reasonable musical (if not technical!) standard. Somewhat surprisingly, my eyesight did not seem to be so much of a problem this time – suggesting that my brain has finally come to what is left of its senses and has accepted the fact that my left eye has now been superceded. And about time, too… Saturday, March 21. 2009Catching up again...
I haven’t added anything for a while because there hasn’t really been much to add (now if that is not a circular argument I don’t know what is…). I’ve been working over much of the repertoire I’ve recorded and also added a couple more to the mix that I’ve picked up fairly recently, and I’m beginning to think that another extended recording session to produce the final product is beckoning.
But that won’t be for a while yet, because: a) There are a number of performances I feel I can improve on, although obviously I have to draw a line somewhere. b) I don’t know where I will record – either at home or else at the factory, and this will depend of course on Wayne’s good graces and which piano he and I think will be the ‘best’ at the time. c) In two weeks time, I’m putting on another fundraising event for the Bo Children’s Hospital in Sierra Leone. I put on the first of these in May last year, and, due to great assistance from many people, it was a great success not only in raising money but also for me personally in the sense that it was the first public recital I’d given for quite some time and naturally I was very nervous as to whether I could pull it off. As it turns out, I did – even though I was in hospital for the first of my eye operations very, very soon afterwards – I hope that this next recital will not be a precursor to something similar. I also plan to put on further events in early August and December, so I’m trying to structure the repertoire accordingly to try to have some consistency over the three recitals. I now have three students who are good enough to play in public, and so this will be good experience for them as well. I’m probably going to look at the repertoire somewhat geographically this time – playing music from France, Spain, England, the Russian Federation and China. This should provide a great range of music to show off the capabilities of the piano, if not the performer. Saturday, March 7. 2009
Piano music and the Stuart piano Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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After having done all of this recording and having played many pieces from pre-baroque to modern, I think I’m a position to be able to comment, at least from my perspective, on the ‘performance’ of the piano and its ‘suitability’ for various type of music.
I haven’t found any issues at all. I can get the sounds I want and the interpretation I want without any effort now and the piano has proved itself to be able to handle (at least at my level) any style, speed or dynamic range I throw at it. A somewhat amusing but entirely logical result of many of my recordings is that the piano’s sustain is such that my final chords seem to take an eternity to disappear into the darkness of silence. The bass notes on my piano have a forty second sustain time so it is possible to have a one minute piece and (at least) a twenty second (say) final chord – and this comes out very cleanly on the recording. In practice what I have done in a majority of cases is to get to the stage where the decaying sound is beginning to show signs of being affected by the background noise and then fade it out. As I have noted previously, the piano’s dynamic range is such that I can easily outdo the dynamic range of the CD. In practice, I didn’t have too much trouble with this since even when the volume meters began to get clipped the sound is still very clean and not distorted in any way. The soft parts are still quite audible and hopefully when people play it back they will able to hear everything, but I suspect the better the speakers the better. Finally, the clarity of the piano itself comes out very well overall. The real tests of a piano in my view are the high treble and the bass, and in both cases the sounds come out remarkably well. Even when there are a great range of sounds, the bass and the treble are clearly delineated and very clear, and the bass does not interfere either in terms of volume or frequency masking in any way. The recordings show quite clearly that the ‘hype’ surrounding these pianos is not just ‘hype’. I couldn’t do on any other make of piano what I’ve done here – there really is a different world of sound to be explored and experienced. These pianos are not for the faint hearted as I’ve said many times and you need to have a good deal of musical sensitivity and aural perception to appreciate what these pianos can do, but from all of this there is one point that becomes very clear. If I can do all of this with my limited abilities, imagine what others of greater ability (and there are many) can do. There is no reason any more to stick with tradition. One has to progress. Piano music has progressed far past the 19th century piano designs. This is the only piano I’ve played that can do justice to any kind or period of music. Friday, March 6. 2009Curent recording thinking
After a few days of tinkering around with files and listening to what I have done so far, I’ve re-recorded a few tracks which to me were beginning to sound very laboured in the way I was playing. I must admit that at times during my recording I was playing safe and making sure that at least I was able to play the piece without too many mistakes, but on reflection I felt I wasn’t being nearly positive enough in my approach to some of the pieces, and so I redid them and overall the new performance are much, much better than the old ones. It seems as though I’m getting more confident in my approach –perhaps I didn’t think I could really play them in the way I now can.
I’ve swapped a few pieces from CD to CD to better balance out the individual programmes, but after listening to the tracks I’ve done so far Wayne is of the view that there are a couple of unisons on the piano which are slightly out of tune. I must admit I can’t hear them nearly as well as he can, and that probably means my sense of hearing is perhaps not as good as it once was, but these things become apparent only over time, and whilst they are not serious it does mean that eventually I will have to redo a number of tracks, quite probably at the factory in Newcastle where Wayne can keep a fatherly eye on proceedings and I can get my hands on a 2.9 metre piano… If I ever think that these recordings can be issued publicly, I am going to need to make sure that everything is spot on and that includes my playing. Whilst I am happy with the achievement so far, it has proved to me that given the right repertoire and environment I can, even at my age, produce something that approaches ‘professional’ quality, whatever that means. Some of the tracks I’ve done so far really do bring out the best qualities of the piano and since I’ve come this far I really think I should give it a go and see how it comes out. After all, right at the beginning of this blog I did say that the piano was challenging. I’m beginning to understand more fully what that means. The other learning curve has been in the recording setup. I’ve now got it as optimum as my equipment will allow – and overall the sound is pretty much indistinguishable from a professional CD. This also has the advantage of no equalisation or compression whatsoever, and I’ve also managed to get the noise levels down to -108Db, which is not bad going. It makes we wonder whether I need to perform noise suppression any more – so far the results indicate maybe not. But then again, I’m not in a soundproof room or recording studio, so I’ll need to monitor this fairly carefully for future recordings. This is fun. Monday, March 2. 2009
The tyrannous and bloody deed is done … Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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(with apologies to a certain William Shakespeare) … i.e. I have finished forty-eight tracks altogether, and now have two CDs as a result. Now I have to decide what to do with them…
As I mentioned before, one of my aims was to see how much things had changed since my last recording efforts now almost three years ago. Overall, I have to admit that the sound quality is very good. I doubt that many people would be able to work out that the equipment that I used was not exactly what you would find in a professional recording studio, but nonetheless it is the overall sound that matters and not how you got there. Secondly, I find it much easier to listen to these new recordings than it does to listen to my old ones. That is not to say that my old ones weren’t good – I’ve had some very good comments from people about those – but it is just that I seem to be more at home with the piano (this is not surprising) and that my interpretations are much more consistent over a range of styles. There is no doubt that you can produce professional sounding results without having to resort to a professional studio, or even expensive ‘professional’ equipment. Whilst it may be argued that ‘professional’ equipment gives better results (and certainly 24bit 96 or 192 kHz recording gives a better quality overall) when the results are distilled onto a CD it is very difficult to tell the difference. I’ve found out a great deal about how I play the piano these days, and how I’ve needed to adjust to compensate for my eyesight problems. Certainly it has helped that my memory is improving, although I still have a long way to go to really get it back into the kind of shape I would like, and that may not be possible given my advancing years, but if I play music that doesn’t require much jumping around the keyboard then the results normally come out well. My control of the pedals and dynamics of the piano is fine, and I’m able to bring out many nuances in the music that perhaps the composer did (or even didn’t!) intend to be emphasised. Now for my next project … Monday, February 23. 2009
I have made very good progress over ... Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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… and as a result have only about five or six more tracks to put down before I finish the recording phase of the project. As I’ve intimated in previous posts, it has been much harder this time around since I’ve been much more critical of what I am playing, and I hope this is reflected in the final result. As I write this, I’m listening to the tracks as mixed and I’m feeling quite relaxed about the whole thing, which is a very positive sign.
One of my major conundrums has been dealing with background noise in the raw recordings. Initially I was doing a full 100% noise reduction and that seemed to give good results until I noticed that where there was a lot of sustain, the end part of the sustain was being identified as noise and being chopped off. If I only did a 50% noise reduction, this got rid of most of the background (it is there, but inaudible unless you turn the volume up full, and then only right at the very end of the piece, which is insignificant in real terms. The other major modification was a result of my son borrowing the Rode shotgun microphone I use to pick up room ambience. During its absence I decided to run with just the two microphones inside the piano and basically found that the sound was identical to the four microphone set up. So now I’ve gone back over all of the tracks and remixed accordingly and there is no doubt that the sound is better. It is surprising to me that making such a small change (in terms of the noise reduction) had such a significant effect on the sound quality, particularly when viewed (as it were) through a good set of earphones. The full noise reduction tended to make the sound very watery, and reducing the noise reduction made the sound much more integral over the whole frequency range. I also found, as I expected, that the Stuart piano’s dynamic range is greater than that of the recording and CD playback. I am beginning to understand why many commercial recordings use limiters to ‘squash’ the dynamic range, but I’ve been determined not to do that. I’ve yet to fully sort that out, but it is entirely possible that in order to fit in the ‘loud’ bits, the ‘soft’ bits may well be very soft coming out of the speakers. There isn’t really that much I can do about it (the piano is just too good!) and it will simply mean that people will just have to listen more carefully to fully appreciate the extremes of the piano, both volume-wise and tonally. Monday, February 16. 2009Much has been made about ...
… some of the technical advances in the Stuart piano over and above what may be called the status quo. But in talking about these, many people lose sight of the fact that the driving force behind these changes was not technical but musical.
Take the agraffe for instance. This modifies the termination of the strings so that they are terminated vertically, not horizontally as in all other grand pianos. Whilst this has received the most publicity (i.e. marketing) over the years, it has to seen in the context of many other advances in piano design present in each and every Stuart piano. This hasn’t stopped other people from jumping on the bandwagon and by implication or otherwise trying to convince others that they had an important role to play in the development of the agraffe principle. This recently occurred in one of the PianoWorld fora where it was claimed by a technician who had developed his own agraffe about twenty years ago for Baldwin (it was never taken up by that company) that : “An almost identical bridge agraffe is now being used by Stuart (Australia). The bridge agraffe developed by Steingraeber is similar to this.” Now this seems an innocent enough statement except that: 1) I doubt that he’s even seen a Stuart agraffe 2) The Steingraeber agraffe (actually designed by Richard Dain from Hurstwood Farm in England) is quite different to the Stuart agraffe in both its design and application. 3) It could be construed from the wording that somehow the Stuart agraffe is based upon or draws upon the Baldwin work. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my view the statement at best ambiguous and at worst dishonest. The Stuart agraffe was initially trialed in 1974, refined over about a decade to its first stage implementation and then further refined over a further decade to its present form. There can, of course, be no specific claim on this concept as similar devices have been around for well over 150 years. It should be noted that Wayne Stuart developed his device in isolation of any contemporary efforts. His focus was never on the agraffe per se but rather, the principle of vertical coupling such a device could achieve. This was driven, not by any perception that the bridge pin system is primitive and inadequate, but to take advantage of the need to change the soundscape from the old lineal, two dimensional, time based notation and ideology that essentially ended with the rise of Impressionism. Since that time essential musical ethos and motifs have required a three dimensional soundscape to be effectively communicated. This important driving force in contemporary music seems to have passed by the traditionally focused piano makers and technicians who are bogged down in 19th century ideologies and fashions in sound. Stuart’s work is not about better bridge coupling/agraffes but about the exploration of the vertical colour of sound which readers might be better informed on if they read the Dr. Erik Tamm work, Brian Eno - His Music and the Vertical Colour of Sound. – a free download on the Brian Eno website and a subject which I have already covered in this blog. Sunday, February 15. 2009The fourth pedal ...
… is very much like the fourth dimension – everyone knows that it is there but very few know what it is, or what it means.
With regards the Stuart piano this was brought home to me in no uncertain terms by reviews of the NAMM piano manufacturers and dealers exposition held last month in Los Angeles. Given the state of the world economy in general, and the piano industry in particular, is not what one could call healthy, it was no surprise when attendances appeared to be less than in previous years. But even so there were still some things happening and claims being made which quite frankly are so far off the planet it wasn’t funny. For example, Mason & Hamlin – the world’s finest pianos. Good pianos they are – but that claim is going a bit far. I don’t even make that claim about the Stuart (although privately it would take a lot to convince me otherwise). And Fazioli were making great store with their fourth pedal as if it were the latest ‘invention’ from a brand that was trying to make its name as innovatory. Well, I hated to burst their bubble, but of course Stuart pianos have had this fourth pedal since the beginning. The other crazy thing about the Fazioli is the placement of the pedal – it’s in such a weird position that it is impossible to control both soft pedals at the same time. Talk about a waste. It seemed to me that they were making out that the major advantage of their fourth pedal was playing very softly on a large grand piano. Little to they know I can do that on a 2.9 metre Stuart piano without any pedals at all. The use of the pedals allows me to play more softly still … In fact, in the Stuart & Sons piano this is only a minor part of the whole philosophy behind the fourth pedal. Like the Fazioli, not only are the hammers moved closer to the strings but the key depth is reduced. This is a consequence of the fact that the distance the hammer and the key travel are vital in the production of certain harmonics which are translated into what we hear and feel as the sound’s attack and decay transients. In the normal context of the correct regulation of the grand piano action, a reduction or narrowing of the hammer’s striking distance from what is considered the minimum distance (45mm) for so-called normal function affects the sound envelope by reducing certain harmonic developments which give the sound a particular warm or cloistered effect and removes the vertical driving projection from the sound envelope. This can be interpreted and indeed, experienced as a more lateral projection of the sound envelope. This peculiar effect can give the sense of a more distant, less aggressive sound. A similar effect can be obtained by reducing the travel of the key only. This is the reason this pedal is called the 'dolce pedal'. It must be noted that decreasing both the striking distance and the key depth in this way by depressing the fourth pedal magnifies the combined outcome and produces a distinctive quality that cannot be achieved by finger control alone. This is the result of mechanical dynamics in a leverage system designed to convert kinetic energy into an acoustic response disregarding the nature of the playing technique employed. This is something many players do not fully appreciate, understand or like to hear as it means that there are certain mechanical limits to the artistic aspirations of the pianist. This is also a factor in the Steingraber Phoenix's combination of the two functions in the one pedal - clearly a very limited attempt to harness a very wide tonal pallette. What the Fazioli misses by the somewhat obscure pedal placement, and Steingraeber in their 'two into one' pedal mechanism, in their approaches to a fourth pedal function is the crucial importance of independently utilising both the dolce or kinetic moderator function of the fourth pedal together with the shift or reduction in the number of strings struck function of the third pedal. These functions have significant potential to reveal a whole new sound pallette for musical interpretation and from my own and others' experience on these pianos, only those who have mastered the concept of the two pedals on the Stuart piano can have any idea of this importance and significance. Those who fully understand the function and can hear the results have been ardent supporters of this advanced addition to influence the dynamic and textural aspects of a composition. To bring together such potential for artistic sensitivity hitherto unavailable in the standard piano must surely be an advantage. Thursday, February 12. 2009
Some pianists take a little while to ... Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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I was unaware that there is a 2.9 metre Stuart piano in the Independent Theatre in North Sydney. This was brought to my attention today when I made the acquaintance (through this blog) of a recording engineer who does volunteer work for the public radio station 2MBS here in Sydney. He has recorded the Stuart piano a few times, and he commented from his experience that ‘some pianists take a little while to get used to it’.
That’s not a surprise to me, of course. If it is a surprise to whoever reads this, then read the entire blog from the beginning. 1) some pianists take longer than others 2) some pianists never (=can’t) get used to it. 3) it really takes much longer than a single concert opportunity to really come to grips with what this piano can do. Next month, Music Viva are promoting a Coffee Concert on the 10th of March at 11am featuring the Italian pianist Roberto Cominati , a prize-winner at the 1996 Sydney International Piano Competition, and this will be recorded for 2MBS. Composers represented are Chopin, Rachmaninov, Carl Vine (interesting), Albeniz and Granados. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts to the piano. Given that this is a concert venue, the recorded sound should be full, and will not be equalised or limited in any way. Its good to see that (finally) people are getting the message that it is critical to get the native piano sound, and not something that sounds like a synthesiser. I’m now up to nineteen tracks, with three fairly major (in terms of time) pieces recorded today. Each I have recorded before for my first CD, but it is very clear that the sound is much, much better and from my perspective the interpretations are much more mature as well. At least I’ve made some progress over the last couple of years, and this second ‘stake in the ground’ as it were will be an interesting marker for future recordings. I’m about half way through my projects, which is actually much faster than I originally thought. Gives me more time to get the others better, I suppose. Wednesday, February 11. 2009
It has been fairly productive ... Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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… over the last two days and I now have sixteen tracks completed for a total of about forty minutes actual CD time. As may be gleaned from this, a fair number of these tracks are fairly short, but nonetheless a number were very tricky sound-wise and I had to do a number of takes before I really got the sound I wanted. That simply means, of course, that I wasn’t good enough to do them properly first time around.
At least I got some good practice in. Now comes the more difficult part – longer and more complex pieces that I know at this stage I am not good enough to play properly yet, and will require a fair amount of learning/relearning in order to get the confidence that I can do them properly. This morning, no matter how I tried, I couldn’t make any headway. My fingers were too wooden, and it didn’t help that the pressure of recording added to the overall feeling of mechanicity. A good lunch helped, and by the time I resumed my travails in the afternoon for some reason things started to flow and results improved accordingly – four good tracks were the result. Once again, I am not applying any equalisation or limitations on the sound of the piano. The only thing I am doing is noise reduction, since there is a bit of a hum which I suspect is intrinsic to the equipment somewhere (I can’t identify where). I’ve compared raw and processed files accordingly (burning CDs of 192Khz MP3s) and to my ear (and also to a spectral analysis of the results) there is no difference in the piano sounds between the two files, which is a relief. I’m listening to the tracks now through a set of Bose computer speakers (two speakers plus a bass woofer) and the sound is of a very high quality. This just shows what can be done if one has the right (= cost-effective) equipment. This of course includes the piano… Monday, February 9. 2009
It took several days to get it ... Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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… overall I’m happy with the sound I’m getting out of the piano and the recording levels and microphone positions. I added a fifth microphone as a trial – this was an AKG radio microphone specifically designed for woodwind and brass instruments in live performance but one that is also good enough for studio recording – and I placed it directly over the bass strings to see if I could get a better bass sound. When I mixed it in with the others I didn’t really notice a significant difference in the overall bass sound, and given that I don’t want to artificially enhance any part of the sound spectrum (WYHIWYG) I decided not to use it.
The other adjustment I had to make was in my own playing. When Wayne hammered the hammers, as it were, the result was a slightly softer tone coupled with an equivalent softer action – this was quite deliberate since I wanted the hammers more even (no grooves caused by over vigorous playing) so as to get more sensitivity in the dolce and una corda pedals. Consequently the sound coming out of the piano is a bit different to what it was before, and I must admit, after having played for quite a while to re-establish some form of equilibrium between my ears and my fingers, now very even and controllable over the entire range. I really did think that there was no way the instrument could sound better than it did before but somehow Wayne has done just that. It really is very close to piano perfection – the dynamic range is still there, the notes are very crisp and clean and my fingers are appreciating the extra flexibility in sound that is now possible. So I will need to go back and re-record what I have done so far. That’s not because what I have done so far is not good – I certainly don’t think that is the case. I want to ensure consistency in sound for all the pieces I plan to record, and now that I am much more confident about my ability to record properly (even though as I have said before I am finding it much more difficult than I thought it would be because I’m being very much more self-critical than I have been in the past) it is critical that I take advantage of the piano as it currently sounds. I’m hoping to record at least two tracks each day – and that will enable me to complete the two CDs I have planned within the next month. A bit ambitious, yes, but I feel that I really need to push myself because I know that if I’m sufficiently motivated I will do as good as job as I am capable of doing, and that is all I can demand of myself at any time. And it wasn’t even a new year’s resolution, either. Thursday, February 5. 2009
I really must be more careful ... Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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The recording is coming on well, and I’m gradually getting to the stage where I have a standard set of parameters by which to record, involving the positioning of the microphones, recording levels, and mixing levels and volume adjustment for the final mix.
As I indicated yesterday, I’m happy with the overall sound but still am finding that performance-wise I am not always getting the touch and sensitivity I am after when I’m recording, particularly when I’m playing very quietly and using the dolce and una corda pedals either singly or in tandem. This morning after I’d finished one run through, I decided to keep recording and to play the piece again since I knew where I needed to get things better. In fact, it took me two more goes again to really nail it the way I knew I could and so I was quite satisfied when I dumped the raw recording onto a CD for further processing. When I looked at the files on my computer they were blank. I’d forgotten to turn phantom power on for the microphones. @#$%^&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Serves me right. I really should be more careful. Wednesday, February 4. 2009
This is much harder than I thought ... Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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23:05
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It was always my intention when I acquired the Stuart piano to develop a small recording setup specifically for the piano, and in a previous post to this blog I have described that in some detail. I’ve added a fourth omnidirectional microphone to this setup – this time placed directly underneath the piano – I pinched this idea from the setup for Tonya’s concert in December.
Some two and a half years ago I recorded enough material for my first CD. This was recorded using two cardioid AudioTechnica voice microphones, but even then the result was a very good sound considering the lack of sophistication of the equipment used. Recording was not that difficult from a performance perspective, but since that time listening to what I recorded it became clear that there were a number of things which I would really need to get better if I was going to record again – there are too many minor niggles for my liking now. And that is a problem in a sense because I’m now so attuned to those ‘minor niggles’ that I can identify them very quickly when I play and hence I’m finding that it’s taking much longer to get a 'take’ that I’m even reasonably happy with let alone completely satisfied with the result. I suppose it’s a good thing long term because I’m forcing myself to a much higher standard (which may of course not be such a high standard to other people but to me it is) but nonetheless it is very frustrating at times. So it means one or more of a few possibilities: 1) I’m not good enough, full stop 2) I am good enough but the piano, as I’ve said before, makes my errors such as they are much easier to pick up 3) I’m being too critical and expecting too much of myself 4) All of the above 5) None of the above All answers and advice gratefully received, of course. However, what I have been able to produce so far is sounding very good, and it certainly looks as though I have my microphone setup and mixing characteristics pretty much right. The sound is very clean and precise and I’m actually beginning to believe that I can do this at a much higher level than I thought I could. When I did my first CD I took it as a moment in time that I could look back on and see where I was at that time and compare it to where I am now. There’s no doubt that the results are much better from both an overall sound and performance viewpoint. It hasn’t been a waste of time after all. Tuesday, February 3. 2009
It is certainly very pleasing ... Posted by Dr Christopher Moore
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… when a piano settles fully into its environment and meets all the expectations of the builder and the owner. This is what happened yesterday when Wayne came down and spent some nine hours or so (including a very nice lunch at a local Thai restaurant) tuning and revoicing the piano.
The tuning was very close to being spot on. Considering the last time the piano was tuned was in May last year, over eight months ago, this is quite a remarkable achievement. Most of the work went into adjusting the hammers and the action and as far as possible working on the grooves on the hammers to get an optimum tone over the whole eight octave range. This had the effect as well of lightening the action slightly, which is something I’ve been keen on for a while now. So we now have a situation where the piano is totally at home in its environment and is extraordinarily stable both pitch-wise and action-wise. The piano is still in an absolutely pristine condition, and this is not only due to the inherent quality of the piano but also of course to Wayne’s skill in keeping it that way. I must admit that quite a bit of the time I didn’t really know what he was doing but there is no doubt as to the effectiveness of all of that given the way the piano is now sounding. So now the way is clear for further progress both from the performance and recording perspectives. I’m in the preliminary stages of organising another fundraising concert probably at the beginning of April, and my programme for that is pretty much worked out at this stage. |
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