Fortunately the Bill Evans is fabulous music. I read a review of the Grusin album a few days ago, which implies that the Sonoma is a direct to DSD system, effectively mixed live, sort of how live direct vinyl cuts were mixed. It implies no post-production. I did not buy it as I sampled it and thought much the same as Andrew Everard in this review.
I agree with reviewâŚexcept about the piano recording part. The recording sounds excellentâŚthe piano does not sound realisticâŚunless you had your head in the piano near the hammers.
I just did a search of Moose Sound Studio. I thought PS Audio had built a studio called Octave with DSD facilities, but this is a studio built by Grusin and some of his mates with Skinas DSD kit installed. The rooms look quite small - far too small for a good piano recording, usually done in a large recital hall, concert hall or big church.
Itâs a pity you canât listen to all the Bill Evans major LPâs from Analogue Productions as Hoffman/Gray masterings on digital as they were only released on 45RPM LPâs.
But you can get APâs previous releases mastered by Doug Sax on SACD, also done from analog masters.
I have all on LP (Sax and SH/KG) and the available on SACD. Itâs where vinyl makes the difference.
But not so much with the âSome other timeâ mentioned above where I also have the Resonance Recordings LP and the 2xHD digital version. The 2xHD is a DSD transfer from analog as Steven pointed out, while Resonance can only do hires PCM and also cut the record from that. But this recording is not so resolving that there would be a big difference. To be honest I think itâs a bit overrated sound wise, but very nice and the piano sound is very dynamic and clean for an old recording.
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It is interesting how the sound of this recording is polarizing.
This reviewer opines the sound is â[S]imply sensational, with perhaps the best piano sound I have heard.â
But some here find the sound to be unexceptional.
Intriguing.
As odd as I find the perspective, I just played the Grusin after the Evans and itâs clear how much more overtones it has and how much more vibrant the sound is compared to the vintage Evans recording.
It sounds as if Grusinâs piano cover was up while Evansâ was closed and sounds somehow damped in comparison. The Octave recording simply sounds as if played back with an omnidirectional speaker 
You have to go somewhere back in the room, then it sounds as a distant live piano filling the room. From the sweet spot, itâs too big and unfocused.
NopeâŚthe Evans recording, at least in DSD128, sounds fantastic and much more realistic than the Grusin recording. The Evans recording being a trio helps tremendously.
Just listen to âSome Other TimeââŚwow!!
Mixing live was a decision on their end. With Sonoma you can record multiple tracks and mix later, which is what Gus does.
Excellent observation⌠I too find the recording a bit more âlistenableâ from a distance.
Cheers.
Closely placed and widely spaced omnis.
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The question is, why, except for an obvious effect to impress the inexperienced, would one like to create such a perspective. But Hi-Fi perspectives are all fake, so be it Itâs a great recording quality if you donât expect any kind of realistic soundstage.
I donât know why.
But I have made an, I think, interesting observation:
Think of this recording as a recording of a multi-faceted instrument, which has numerous musical voices - maybe like a choir (keys/hammers and strings compared to individual singers).
Rather than placing the mic(s) such that the music produced by the piano/choir is captured as a cohesive production of the sound of the piano (choir), this recording sort of puts you in up among the voices (individual notes struck on the piano).
So, in a traditional stereo listenerâs seating position, one does not hear the combined output of the choir (piano) so much as capture the individual notes (voices) combining to make the music.
It is an unusual perspective if you are sitting in the sweet spot in front of your Hi-Fi.
However, if you change your perspective (e.g., listening position distance) you can back away from the individual notes/voices and hear a startlingly realistic rendition of a solo piano.
I find listening to the recording at low volume is also very efficacious.
Donât know if this makes any technical sense, but these are my impressions.
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YesâŚI use it as a great piano sound example to listen from somewhere in the room
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Or from the other roomâŚ
Very thoughtful.
As I mentioned previously, the sound is akin to standing in the waist of the piano as a soprano might as she is singing accompanied by the piano.
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This is the only photo on the album jacket that shows the mics as they ended up on the record, and itâs a bit hard to see. But the three boom stands across the side each have Sanken CO-100K omni mics, quite widely spaced for how close they are to the soundboard, IMO. However, if they were placed further out in the room, there was too much room reflection. Up and to the right is an AEA stereo mic that was used to fill in some room ambience for the stereo, and was used for the rear channels of the surround.
The left and right mics are fairly predominant in the mix, so you hear one end of the soundboard and the other, and not so much in the middle, as well as the time delay between them.
So, to answer your earlier question, Jazznut - I think what happened was they ended up with a 5-channel arrangement of mics for surround that was also used for the stereo.
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Nicely done, Mr. Bad
The Sanken mics are interesting as their response legitimately extends to 100kHz. I have never played with them, but would love to. The reviews are excellent.
Very nice mics indeed, as evidenced by the SQ. But use and placement of omnis is a tricky business. There are a few other more traditional sorts of mic pickup patterns and physical mic placements that would typically be used for a piano in this sort of environment.
Agreed. I record piano very differently. But, then again, there are a myriad of ways to record piano.
Omnis are difficult to place. Counter-intuitively, at least for me, is the greater the distance between them the smaller the included recording angle. Placing them closer together results in omnis including a greeter recording angle. T
Thus, when recording an orchestra with omnis as the main pair, I place the mics fairly close together, roughly 15 inches apart. Even when placed quite close to the orchestra, just behind the conductor, this close spacing will capture the far right and left front instruments as part of the stereo soundstage. While standing there setting the mics, I always want to place them further apart as this seems to make more sense.