We offer unique recording facility at Hurstwood Farm Pianos . The charge is £350 plus VAT first(8 hr) day and £250 for subsequent days.
Recordings are made on our Bosendorfer Imperial SE reproducing piano. This is the only fully authentic reproducing piano available for such recording in the UK though two others exist in private ownership.
The SE system is recognised as the ultimate system in authentic reproduction of a performance. Compared with conventional midi systems of reproduction the sound intensity envelope is about 5 times more precise and the timing precision about 10 times better. In consequence the reproduced sound is so perfect that even the most experienced listener cannot tell the difference between the live performance and the reproduction. Experienced artists can even listen to a performance and know who was playing from the nuances of the reproduction.
The advantages of recording on this piano are many:-
1. Recordings can be made without the presence of a recording engineer or standby tuner. The cost saving, around £500 per day, is obvious, but also some recording engineers, by their presence, lack the skill or perhaps the will to encourage the artist to play at his best.
2. Any performance is totally immune to external noise because the data is stored in the form of movement of the piano action. No take is ever lost because of noise interference.
3. The piano is self calibrating for sound intensity and dynamics of reproduction and makes correction for small changes in action response resulting from, for example, humidity variation.
4. During recording precise tuning of the piano is required only to the level at which the artist is comfortable. The cost of a standby tuner is therefore not incurred.
5 Total and versatile traceless editing of any performance is possible and is simply done by the artist if he wishes. Even individual notes in a chord and pedalling can be edited. The editor is so comprehensive that it is possible to create a performance or phrases without an artist at the piano at all. Tempo can be adjusted without limit except the repetition rate of the piano action which is up to 16cps.
6. The system storage is economical so many takes can be made for later selection in the final performance, at no extra cost. One artist made no less than fifty takes of a passage in a longer performance before he was sufficiently satisfied to splice it into the final performance.
7. The final reproduction of the performance after editing can be played as often as necessary so various microphone positions can be tested to optimise the sound required for the chosen performance.
8. The finished audio recording for which precision tuning of the piano is needed can be made at a time when incidental noise (aircraft,traffic, weather or agricultural) is minimal , say after 11pm and before 5 am, thus background noise is normally much lower on our recordings.
We can offer traditional real time audio recording, but only out of normal office hours ie 7. 00 pm to 8.00 am, and some weekends by special arrangement, because otherwise we cannot operate our other piano business without interrupting the recording. For such recording the artist is required to use our appointed recording engineer Mr Granville Cooper, and house technician Mr Douglas Chapman, because our experience is that many recording engineers do not understand how to work with valuable instruments such as ours and we have suffered serious damage and abuse .
Artists using the Bosendorfer Imperial SE piano are welcome to bring friends and performance advisers to help with the recording.
For real time recording we can offer selection from four superb concert grand pianos. It is our intention to equip the famous “Stunning Blonde” Steingraeber-Phoenix piano with the SE system