<html> <body> At 01:16 PM 2/5/2006, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">While I agree that there are examples of recordings where the result clearly does not reflect the character of the piano, there are also others where the recording sounds very much like the source instrument.</blockquote> Yes. <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Often a recording team will saturate the tone beyond that coming from the instrument, making it unrecognisable.</blockquote> An example of this is the recording of Jorge Bolet in Carnegie Hall.  The last piece is the Lizst/Wagner Tannhauser transciprtion.  You can hear the engineer gradually increase the recording level, eventually saturating the tape. <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> However, it is also possible to quite faithfully reproduce the character of the instrument.</blockquote> Yes.  Much of what Rubinstein recorded for RCA falls into this category. <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> Our recording objective was to reproduce the actual tonal character of the instrument and we were quite pleased with the match between the actual piano and the recording of Scott Davie's Rachmaninoff Lilacs CD.</blockquote> Haven't heard this one. Best. Horace <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Ron O. <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">  Maybe so but I've heard recordings of my own pianos & they really sounded like my piano so what I am saying that it is possible to get a realistic flavor of a given piano and we tuners have a very sophisticated set of ears.  A true picture is rarely possible on recordings but they've gotten better as some people who know piano tone also become recording engineers.  Jeff Stradling & a Yamaha recording artist hinself recently recorde my Stwy D & his results were very life like & and as good as any I've heard.   Mic placement has a huge amount to do with it of course.   All that to say is that I will not discount what I heard.  It was very pleasantly different & similar to some of the results that I've gotten in my own designs.  A good recording CAN reflect the true nature of the sound.    Dale Erwin <dl> <dd>Recordings can be deceiving and I don't like to rely on them for a true picture of a piano's tone.  I've heard some beautiful recordings on Yamahas that were very un Yamaha like in their overall impression.  Recording has gotten so sophisticated lately in terms of the ability to manipulate tone so I'm generally reluctant to draw any conclusions that way. <dd>  <dd>David Love <dd>davidlovepianos@comcast.net </dl> </blockquote> <pre>-- </pre> OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY    Grand Piano Manufacturers _______________________ Web <a href="http://overspianos.com.au/" eudora="autourl"> http://overspianos.com.au</a> <a href="mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au" eudora="autourl"> mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au</a> _______________________</blockquote></body> </html>