Recording devices (off-topic?)

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

It is interesting that no-one has mentioned the Kawai PR-1 piano 
recording system.  It makes great close recordings of our 
pianos.  The CD transport mechanism could be faster and more reliable 
but the EQ and Hall effects section make up for that.  With a little 
experimentation in mike placement under the bridges and balance 
between them you can get great tight sound. There is good rejection 
of external noise.

We've been really happy with ours.

Andrew Anderson

At 02:13 PM 12/3/2007, you wrote:
>David,
>
>Thanks for your thoughts.  I believe even with the very best 
>equipment a vinyl record dynamic range is somewhere around 50dB.  Of 
>course, typical digital dynamic range is around 100dB, so good that 
>one doesn't need to remember exactly what it is.
>
>What is really cool, is that at very little cost anyone of us can 
>record even a piano with fidelity that was impossible to obtain with 
>extremely high priced equipment just a few years ago.
>
>
>Gary
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "David Boyce" <David at piano.plus.com>
>To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 11:36 AM
>Subject: Recording devices (off-topic?)
>
>
>>I thought maybe I was going off-topic from Kent's original thread, 
>>so have renamed this.
>>
>>Although it's not strictly a piano topic, I guess we have all 
>>wanted at times to make recordings of interesting pianos and so on, 
>>so perhaps it's tangentially related.
>>
>>Gary, what I have is the Philips 785 not 765. It has a three CD 
>>changer and a CD recorder, and the microphone socket on the front. 
>>I think they didn't sell it for long.  There are one or two little 
>>oddities I think maybe they ironed out in later models. 
>>Occasionally the thing freezes, like a PC crash. I searched hard 
>>online about this, and found out that you cure it by swithcing the 
>>machine off at the mains. I've been very pleased with it 
>>otherwise.  Though, as you say, machines like this require the more 
>>expensive "Audio CD" format disc. I think those come with a tiny 
>>piece of code on 'em that makes the thing work.  It's supposed to 
>>offset the costs of piracy I guess.
>>
>>There are plenty of digital handheld voice recorders, but up till 
>>now, they've not been of a quality suitable for making long, 
>>nice-quality, stereo recordings of pianos and other live musical 
>>performances, via stereo mics.. It seems to be only now that 
>>devices suitable for that are beginning to appear: capacity has 
>>been an issue up till now.
>>
>>I do think things are beginnning to get easier.  It's like in the 
>>early days of digital photos - you needed special software and a 
>>firewire etc to get pics out of the cameras.  All a bit too much 
>>faffing around.   Then USB connections came along, card readers and 
>>popular data card formats like SD cards, and the whole thing got 
>>easier.  My cheapo DVD player (also have an expensive DVD recorder) 
>>has a card reader on the front, and a visitor from Siberia I had 
>>staying with me recently, was able to take the card out of his 
>>little Canon camera, slot it into the DVD player and see his pics 
>>on TV, without needing the PC.  So that might be a route in future: 
>>stereo recording devices with data cards, say SD,  that you can 
>>simply play in the DVD player, which of course will also play your audio CDs.
>>
>> From time to time I have met individuals who have argued that vinyl is
>>superior to CD.  Well, if you have a high-end $2000 turntable and 
>>matching RIAA preamp, etc etc, and stable mountings, and you look 
>>aftger your LPs most scrupulously, then _perhaps_ there might be 
>>some special quality about LPs that you like, though I still don;t 
>>think it's _better_.  But for the ordinary domestic listening 
>>situation, CD as got to beat vinyl LPs hands-down, in my opinion.
>>
>>Getting back to recording formats, Sony Minidisc might have been an 
>>option, but I am afraid it's on the way out.  To have been 
>>commerically successful, it would need to have succeeeded as a 
>>music _playing_ format. But people were too much into the CD format 
>>to want to change, and only a handful of commercial recordings ever 
>>appeared on Minidisc.  Making live stereo recordings of accoustical 
>>sources with microphones is, I suppose, a tiny minority market - a 
>>market of clever, musical, intelligent people, albeit, but not 
>>commercialy viable. If it was a larger market, I think the next 
>>generation of cellphones would be able to record in high-quality 
>>stereo onto an SD card. That would be very handy.
>>
>>Best regards,
>>
>>David.
>>
>>David,
>>
>>Thanks for your explanation.  I, too, have a Philips CDR 765, but without
>>the mic jack on the front panel.  I get around the hassle of having to go
>>way out of my way to buy the compatible, and expensive, "Consumer" CD-R's
>>that cost an additional $1.00 in "royalties".  I just record on the CDR765
>>with the RW discs and then make a 20-cent CD-R copy of that on my PC's disc
>>writer.  So, what I do is an example of what you said about there being many
>>ways to go about making a recording these days.  Oh yeah, then I have a tiny
>>handheld digital voice recorder.  I have to come out of the earphone jack
>>into the line input of my PC (not a great impedance match but it works) to
>>make a permanent file of anything recorded with that.  Oh well, it is all
>>still way better than the old Sony open reel tape decks we had as kids. If
>>you haven't listened to a Sony 250 or 350 or the like for awhile, the sound
>>quality may amaze you.  It is atrocious in every way!
>>
>>By the way, my CDR 765 is not the best player I've had as it sometimes is
>>unstable when it comes to tracking.  Recording with it, though, has been
>>entirely trouble free.  How has yours been?
>>
>>It is good to know that there is one less audiophool than I thought there
>>was yesterday.  Thanks again.
>>
>>
>>Gary
>>
>