Dear Ed and all Le 11 fevr. 07 =E0 02:45, Ed Durbrow a ecrit : I think the likelihood of the weak link in the chain being the CD playback device is far less likely than one of the transducers, i.e. microphone or speaker. IMHO
It can't be the speaker or the same would hold with analogue. Yes, I think for many CDs it is the microphone placement and quality and perhaps recording device quality, as well as signal treatment that is at fault. I wonder whether engineers do not add echo sometimes. If not they often choose echoing churches as their recording studios, and place their microphones too far away. The advice given by Jacob Heringman on your very intersting interview of him seems common sense and should be standard practise, it seems to me; and generally his lute recordings on CD (Sienna lute book) are rather better than many. "one pair, placed roughly where the ears of a person standing six feet away from where I'm sitting would be (--). The diagonal line from mics to lute bridge is usally six feet or so. There are no additional ambient mics." This is quite ON-topic, as when you think about it, the original recording is the only trace we will have of players in years to come, and many people can not reach the concert hall where their favourite players are performing. The very reputed ancient Mercury and Decca recordings (Maestro Streicher's recording on Telefunken) show that when a small number of well placed microphones are used, and in the case of Mercury an extermely wide-band and ultra-dynamic recording tape (I believe they use 35 mm film), then the player shines through, long after they are gone. I suppose some problems may come from the fact that players who are not sound engineers, often record themselves and market their own CDs by copying off computer. I know this is the case with small Jazz groups. At least they do get recorded this way, and there is some trace of their performance which otherwise would be lost. However, larger recording companies like Harmonia Mundi often seem to get it completely wrong; while smaller companies like Glossa recording Moreno, or Bis recording Lindberg seem to do much better (I know Bis seems to have been bought up by Naxos, but I hope the quality will remain). There were some small companies, like one run by the guitarist, Stefano Bertoncello (One-Man-Company, I think it was called), who were dedicated to analogue recording of Baroque players, but generally the sale from these tiny companies is not wide enough to draw well known players. On Feb 11, 2007, at 3:57 AM, The Other wrote: Yamaha gives you a lot of capability/performance for very few dollars. I guess that's what happens when you're the "new" kid on the block. Yamaha is a relatively old company, founded in 1897. They do tend to hit home runs every once in a while: DX-7, Pro Mix 01 etc. I like Roland and Korg (now owned by Yamaha) too, though. And just to bring this back on topic, don't forget Aria used to make lutes. :-) The famous NS 1000 Yamaha components do show how well that company can do in the area of hifi. Unfortunately, CD players do not survive very long because of the moving parts and the fact that the laser burns out. Therefore, this sort of player is not really an option. The only antique player that might be worth a look is the Revox B226, because I think Revox still repair them http://www.tnt-audio.com/ sorgenti/revoxb226_e.html Regards Anthony > > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
