Case Studies
Re-Creating the Aural Sense of Historic Spaces
Studio Techniques
Recording
Daniel Thomson, tenor
Thomas Leininger, harpsichord
Secret Fires of Love
Talbot Records, TP1701 (2017)
Tomaso Albinoni, “Amor, sorte, destino,” 12 Cantate da camera a voce sola, op. 4 (Venice, 1702)
Mp3 generated by:
Sonnox, Fraunhofer Pro-Codec (CBR, 256 kbps)
Case Study: Recording Mozart’s Sonata K.332 on a Fortepiano
In this project, Thomas Leininger recorded keyboard music by Mozart and Beethoven on a fortepiano made by R. J. Regier (after Anton Walter). The sessions took place in Von Kuster Hall at Western University (London, Canada), and because we wanted to replace the acoustics of the hall with an ambient environment similar to the spaces in which listeners probably first heard the music, we located the microphones close to the instrument to lessen the amount of room sound the mics captured (the two photos below show the mic locations).
Mic Locations (audience perspective)
Mic Locations (player’s perspective)
Recording Chain
- Schoeps mics (MK 2 capsules) in A-B configuration over the strings, just behind the hammers
- Milab DC 196 mics in ORTF configuration, next to the instrument’s case
- Merging Technologies Hapi, equipped with ADA8 pre-amps
- Pro Tools (24 bit, 96 kHz).
Post-Production
After editing the various takes together and removing undesirable noise from the recording (iZotope, Rx Advanced), the mic levels were balanced to achieve a natural distribution of bass to treble frequencies:
| Left | Right | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| A-B | -3.0 dB | -0.5 dB | (see the player’s perspective photo) |
| ORTF | -0.7 | -0.5 | (see the audience perspective photo) |
However, despite balancing the mics, the treble of the instrument still seemed a bit too bright, so we used McDSP’s SA-2 to lessen the effect of the offending frequencies (Mode: Gentle, Band mode: Normal). Superfluous low-end rumble was removed by the high-pass filter in Sonnox’s Oxford EQ (cut-off point 44 Hz), and mild compression reduced the signal’s peaks to a level that left plenty of headroom for downstream encoding (Sonnox, Oxford Dynamics – 2:1 ratio, 20 dB knee, threshold of -6.07 dB). EastWest’s Spaces II provided room ambience (LA Guitar Venue, TS RR 2.1s, wet signal at -12.5 dB), and the player’s perspective determined the bass/treble playback image (bass on the left, treble on the right).
Loudness Levels (TP = true peak, I = integrated, LRA = loudness range; measured in MAAT Digital’s DR Offline MK II)
| TP | I | LRA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prelude & Allegro | -2.18 | -21.21 | 11.13 |
| Adagio | -8.66 | -25.69 | 7.75 |
| Allegro assai | -3.05 | -21.48 | 10.04 |
Preparation for Delivery (CD & Streaming)
Weiss, Saracon – bit depth reduction, dither (TPDF), sample rate conversion
Sonnox, Fraunhofer Pro-Codec – mp3 (CBR, 256 kbps)
The Completed Recording
Thomas Leininger, fortepiano
Mozart Fantasie K.397, Sonatas K.331 & K.332 and Beethoven Sonata Op. 2, No. 1
Talbot Records, TR1901 (2019)
W. A. Mozart, Sonata K.332 (the four sections in a single mp3 track)
i. Prelude (improvised by Thomas Leininger)
ii. Allegro
iii. Adagio
iv. Allegro assai