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In Reply to: RE: RMAF: Grace Design Giving Away a John Marks 24/96 track--here's the Dropbox key posted by John Marks on October 02, 2015 at 09:00:41
Is this what passes for an 'audiophile quality' recording these days? All I heard was a loud rumble that persisted for the entire recording except for when the limiter was activated, which was nearly every key strike, and the rumble disappeared for a moment.
Follow Ups:
Hi-
Thanks for listening. May I ask on what did you listen?
Also, did you read the accompanying comments document?
I recorded that in a historical church in Providence, Rhode Island. So yes, there is city noise, more than I would wish. But I also believe that there are some cures that are worse than some diseases, so there was no effort made to filter out that noise.
Next, there was no limiter applied. Above is a screenshot of a piano note. It looks like an uncompressed waveform to me.
I had previously sent the track to Bob Ludwig, and I take the liberty of quoting him in self-defense (and if there were obvious flaws in the track, I think Bob would have told me):
"That 96k24 file of the Scriabin is very nice. The M/S is nice and clear. It's the antithesis of the way I record piano; wide omnis like Judith Sherman, but I like your recording a lot." Bob accepted that the recording venue was noisy. The recording project was to celebrate the 375th anniversary of the founding of that church, so, recording in a studio would have made no sense to anyone.
Given the difference between Bob's reaction and yours, I might suspect that your download got corrupted, or that it was perhaps in some way changed by your computer, perhaps without your knowledge.
I think that it is an unusually soulful performance, and the recording shows how the Grace m201's M-S function can give reality a little help but in organic, non-artificial ways (the Side track was not EQ'd differently than the Mid--neither track was EQ'ed).
In any event, the track cost you nothing other than the time to download it.
Have a nice day.
John Marks
I liked it.
I was surprised how high the recording level got, considering how soft the Music was.
If he played something louder, would it have gone over 0bd?
I played it on Audiogate, to see the Levels.
I do some recording, and getting the levels right isn't easy!
I only use a hand held Sony D 100, on a Mic stand, so I can't Monitor.
I know where to set it for a familiar group like my Clarinet Quartet, but the Dynamic Range of as Big Band is tough to deal with.
It goes over 0 at some point, no matter what!
Edits: 10/02/15
If the music had been louder, I hope I would have caught that by my usual practice of, asking them to play the loudest part and then adding a few dB to make up for the fact that I have only rarely recorded a musician who put out for a soundcheck as though it was a "real" recording.
Ignoring the high noise floor, the particular structure of this piece, which was accentuated by the performer, is slow-moving chords that are later joined by an even slower "ghost melody." Steve really pointed the notes of the ghost melody, so you have an instance of a piece with a lower average level but a higher peak level.
The above is why the Dropbox and my OP includes the sheet music.
Thanks for listening and thanks for posting!
John
A "level check" is essential, and, recognizing that musicians, especially classical musicians, will always play louder during performance than during level check is also essential.
Back in the day of tape recording, when I wanted to be sure I had an unclipped recording, and didn't have the opportunity for a "do-over", I'd always set the levels lower than necessary. Yes, I know that tape "soft clips", but I didn't want to risk anything for these "once-in-a-lifetime" recordings. So, I've got some recordings which have more hiss than I'd like, but they're still great recordings.
On the other hand, I made a live recording of Shubert's Fantasia in F Minor, where the SSFFZZ completely overwhelmed my expectations, and the system clipped. :( Forty years later, I still want to fix that!
I bet Digital is even more sensitive to going over 0 than Tape, even with Tape Saturation.
Under recorded Digital doesn't have the hiss problem, but both too high and too low
Digital Levels make for a less than satisfactory listening experience.
Too high, even not over 0 can sound bright and hard.
Of course , I don't have anywhere near state of the art equipment...
Or, come to think of it, Knowledge.
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