Ned
I can't be more in agreement, particularly about the Astree LP
recordings of POD versus HM CDs.
My thoughts are that the Astree were a CNRS research project, and the
strings seemed to be part of that project.
No doubt the sound engineers wanted us to be able to hear the different
choices that POD had made, so they would have chosen a recording
situation and mic position that didn't blur it:
[1]http://tinyurl.com/ya22s6s
Perhaps the gut strings themselves helped the clarity of the recording;
but analogue recordings are naturally more focussed and yet with more
presence.
The digital sound engineers are clearly trying to make up for the poor
digital sound of cheap systems; as it is so much easier to tweak the
recordings than it used to be, this must be a very tempting solution
indeed.
Of course,YouTube recordists will be trying to make up for the even
worse sound of computer MP3.
Most small recording machines like the Zoom H2 have poor mics, and bad
preamps, so it is necessary to move the mics ultra close. It then
becomes almost obligatory to add reverb to hide the sounds due to the
close miking.
I don't think we shoud be too harsh on these computer recordings, so
long as we treat them as working tools for sharing how players are
doing, and on what they are working.
We should be much stricter and more critical with professional CD
recording that is left as a testament of how a great artist sounded. My
worry is that MP3 will gradually become the standard by which all
recordings are judged.
Bring back the analogue LP!
Anthony
Looking on youtube for a video of the Earl of Essex Galliard the other
night, I came across one by Elizabeth Brown. A fine player, but
sounds
I never heard from a lute live. I wondered what her recording
engineer
was thinking. But then I remembered that "her" sound was not
completely unlike what I hear on many lute CDs, and it occurs to me
that today's recording engineers generally have an odd concept of
what
a lute should sound like. Primarily, they seem to think it should
sound BIG and with the oodles of reverb - as if heard from many feet
away in a large and empty catherdral. Harmonia Mundi records Paul
O'Dette this way, as do ECM and Naxos Nigel North, Naive Hopkinson
Smith, and (not as exaggeratedly) Hyperion Elizabeth Kenny.
Going into my vinyl collection I found that in the past, both
Nonesuch
and Astree did a much more natural job with Paul O'Dette, Edition
Open
Window is wonderful with Jurgen Hubscher (and Alfred Gross), and
Decca
always gave Joe Iadone and Chris Williams a natural sound.
So, my appeal is to recording engineers: go into a medium size - or
even fairly large - room with a lutenist sometime and listen to the
sound he/she produces. Then forget recording in churches or
cathedrals and by all means leave all electronic 'enhanements' out of
the recording chain.
Am I alone in this view?
Ned
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References
1. http://tinyurl.com/ya22s6s
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
