It is one of the best sounding recordings of a piano that I have heard. But, it also sounds completely unrealistic and unnatural. Like I said, I get the impression my head is in the piano by the hammers…
I fully understand why many really like the sound of the piano in this recording. It is immediate, intimate, and powerful. There is a great deal to like.
Fair enough. So your argument is with the perspective. Pretty realistic from the POV of sitting with your head where the mics are.
Wrong. That Bill Evans recording, “Some Other Time”, reminds of times when I was seated near the stage at an intimate Jazz club. That is what “realistic” is…
Yes. I never listen to a piano at a club with my head inside of it…
I like that one a lot. It mostly stays anchored to the left side through the center. Though there are points where suddenly high notes pop out of the right side.
Most recording I do is in churches. They are often affordable venues (but for those in high demand). But they sound like churches. Great for Voces 8, not great for a jazz trio.
As bad beef notes, you cannot turn off the massive reverb even with close miking.
Churches also often have bass nodes which are excited by full orchestra, just like a poorly set up subwoofer.
But if Steven can move the churches he mentions to Boulder, CO I bet PS Audio would be happy to check them out.
You should try it. You’ll never settle for Front Row again.
As you state, “Wrong!” It is merely what you happen to like in reproduced sound.
There is nothing wrong with this, but it is merely a preference.
You can’t say “Wrong!” when I say that the Bill Evans recording, “Some Other Time”, reminds of times when I was seated near the stage at an intimate Jazz club. You don’t get to tell me or anyone else what I or they hear or what it sounds like to me or them! You need to back off!
The nice thing is you’re both right. Is sounds as in a jazz club and the base for this impression was artificially produced 
That’s why I told Elk he needed to look up the word “realistic”…a facsimile of what we hear at a club, no matter how it was achieved, is “realistic”.
So - I would add here that with recordings, there are always Practical Realities involved, independent of whatever one might Imagine.
Practical Reality: Don Gruisin says, “If you guys want to come up the hill to my studio, I can play my own piano, and you guys can knock yourselves out”. (I totally made that up…but it likely isn’t far from the basic Reality. Win-win for both parties).
Impractical Imagination: “Don, we want you to come to X Venue, because it’ll sound Rully Realistic, to record on X piano on X day, because we have more money than God, and are going to do it to suit the audiophile fantasies of…maybe one or two people?.. in the end. We’ll never make the money back, but who cares? And, BTW, could you write some better material first? Not Feeling this stuff.”
Impractical Level 2: Substitute your Favorite Artist in the World who is under contract to a Major Label. Substitute Your Favorite Recording Engineer in the World. Etc., Etc.
you funny
Not joking, exactly, but thanks! I just frequently wonder if people think every musician, recording engineer, record producer, etc. is a 1%'er who has a 70’s or 80’s-Era $100k coke budget as a Line Item on their contract. Get it? “Line Item”! I didn’t even see that one coming.
See? You weren’t even trying…
I fully understand.
That’s the situation when a budget limited audiophile label wants to produce some good sound. I think we agree, publishing meaningful music (where the music is the source reason for the whole undertaking) is a different thing
But fine doing this, better than not doing it!
Nonsense.
It is all fake. If you like it, this is perfectly fine. I take no position as to what you happen to like.
As I mentioned a while ago, many of these churches were built by philanthropists as the London suburbs expanded, mainly around 1860 to 1910, when the metro(tube) system was installed. Nowadays philanthropists tend to build art galleries so they can have their name on the side in 30ft letters.
They are all brick built, often in the Gothic style, and often decorated in the style of the time, pre-Raphaelite or arts and crafts. All very ornate. St Judes is the one I know as I go to the proms and I find the reverb quite unpleasant from the audience seating. It does not seem to come through on recordings. The Academy of Ancient Music, amongst others, record there.
Another church from of the same style and time is St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford, where there is a music festival in May (Oxford May Music - original name!) It has become quite an important music venue, with a nice organ and a Steinway D available. The sound in the audience of this church is really good.
https://www.sje-oxford.org/7th-sje-arts-international-piano-series.html
A church that is mostly a music venue is Union Chapel. The last time I went there the sound was terrible, but the show resulted in a live recording. It sounds NOTHING like the live event.
