I had a lovely productive day in the recording studio (i.e. in my living room with the mics on) today, and you, o lucky readers of this weblog, will see the results of that work over the next couple of weeks as I get the recordings edited and mastered.
Here’s the first from today’s session, an old favorite of my compositions. Little-black-dot-minded people can follow along with the score.
I have to say, I’m thrilled with the quality of this recording. Compare this recording to a very similar performance recorded at the first Keys Please, in the Macalester concert hall. The older recording sounds OK, but this one is how it’s supposed to sound, by golly.
I’m sure it would make a traditionalist classical audio engineer turn apoplectic, but I just love the crazy huge sound I get with my unorthodox mic setup. Suddenly, all those long ringing sounds make sense in the recording, just as they do live. I can’t praise recent advances in audio technology enough … or my beautiful piano, for that matter. I also must thank Matthew Smith and also Mike Olson, my audio engineer friends who helped me choose mics and do the EQ.
Do the recording justice, and listen on some good headphones — or, if you’re lucky, a great pair of speakers.