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Re: All true, but there's a problem worse than "dull".

Posted by David Aiken (A) on March 24, 2007 at 13:40:17

In Reply to: All true, but there's a problem worse than "dull". posted by clarkjohnsen on March 24, 2007 at 10:11:53:

Arrau may be on the dull side but that particular set was, when I purchased it, probably the equivalent of this Bach set as far as price goes. I think it provided good value.

Harpsichord is a difficult instrument to record, and so is the classical guitar which I used to play (or try to play). I find many classical guitar recordings are recorded far too close, and I find that strange since as a player my ear for the sound of the instrument was formed by what I heard when I played and I was damn close to the instrument at those times. I think the difference is where my ears were, above and behind the instrument at about 90 degrees to the plane of the soundboard and directly above the side of the instrument. That changes the tone considerably. Placing the mic too close to the front of the instrument seems to accentuate the brightness and string sounds, probably in a way similar to what happens with the harpsichord.

I have a friend who loves classical guitar recordings and can't understand it when I say they don't sound realistic or natural. I think he has little experience of the live sound and what little he may have will have been in concert venues, possibly with a microphone being used, not in a normal sized room at close proximity.

I have similar problems with chamber music. A lot of the recordings are overly close and many concert performances are in rooms too large to be "chambers" and with acoustic characteristics better suited to symphonic music. Neither gives you the effect of a live performance in an appropriately sized room at the distance the audience would be at in such a room.

David Aiken

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