Last weekend I took the studio on location again. This time it was for something grand: a Steinway & Sons piano. A real beauty. The record: Xoph's "Lo-Fi" (working title) to be released Summer 2008. Let me tell you, there was nothing lo-fi about this session. The piano sounded so good naturally that it was quite a feat to capture. After a few tries we decided for a quite innovative sound scape perspective: the player's. So, for the two solo piano tracks we had a closed pair of Neuman U87 right on top of Xoph's head. Then for the rock tunes we moved them in front of the keyboard, right at the player's eye level as a spaced pair. For the room I had a pair Audio-Technicas 4050 in a 10ft equilateral triangle from the piano about 8ft above the ground, and capturing from the front and back. I run the U87s thru my Neve 1272 pre-amps and the 4050s thru my modified Bellari and both into my Apogee analog to digital converter. From there to ProTools. The result was outstanding, I am proud to say so. Xoph, whom as a classical music professional performer has been to all kind of studios, including some of the biggest names says this is the best sound he ever got from a piano. It has the perfect balance between the acoustics of the Hall and the percussive attack of the instrument. In all, the session was a success, tracking a total of 14 songs in two days. I'm sure I will be posting audio samples once the record is officially released in the Summer, so tune in for that.
