[:en]A couple of years ago, when I was still working in the WMDC, a student from the classical department came one Saturday asking for a room to study. His friendly smile and grateful attitude made me give him the best room with the best grand piano we had in the building at that time. Of course when he came down for a coffee break we had a some little small talk. Every now and then he came by to study or for a little chat. This went on till he graduated and not too long after that I had leave the WMDC to start working at the Circus department. Luke and I weren’t really like friends going out for a drink or so together, but it was in the back of my mind all the time.
I started becoming more and more interested in recording on location in stead of the studio. Not that my passion for studio recording got less, but adding a new skill was just a new challenge for me. I started my research and by accident stumbled on an audio designer in the Netherlands who also happened to design his own microphones. After telling my good friend and partner in crime Alex Buurman who writes reviews about instruments and microphones after testing them, we went to interview Ad van Medevoort, the designer. I completely fell in love with these mics and bought the matched pair we tested there and then. While driving back from the interview I came up with the idea of recording a CD with only a grand piano. As you might have guessed, the first guy I thought of was this friendly well spoken ex student Luke Welch.
I knew that Luke is a talented musician, so I started checking him out on the net to find out what kind of classical pieces he plays. Instantly I felt this could be a break to add some experience to my research on acoustic recording so I called him immediately and he was enthusiastic from the start. So after a few sessions in some pubs with a beer our plans started developing. He chose the pieces, I came up with a real nice deal at Evert Snel piano’s for making use of a Fazioli F308. We set a date to check out the piano and the instrument was exactly what we were looking for. The recording date was set, just after Christmas and the preparation started. Luke studying his pieces and me preparing a light mobile setup with as main mic’s, the van Medevoorts. Also the artwork has to be taken care of so my camera had a thorough cleaning to shoot some pictures for the album.
The day before recording day we had some snowfall but on the day itself the sun bright and skies were blue. A perfect day to set the mood. Luke, Lina and I were off to the venue… The whole day went really smooth and thanks to Lina’s input and her photography skills, as I had my hands full on the recording part, we managed to get everything done in just one day!
At this moment I’m finalizing the mix and master and I’m very excited about the result so far. For both Luke and me this is a kind of a debut and worth every penny and every minute we put into it. Soon I will have a teaser clip on soundcloud. And oh yes! I will also have the album available on Itunes, CD baby, Spotify and best of all I will make in streaming or downloadable in DSD format the the audio perfectionists out there! Watch our social media pages for updates on the release and of course the release party!
I started becoming more and more interested in recording on location in stead of the studio. Not that my passion for studio recording got less, but adding a new skill was just a new challenge for me. I started my research and by accident stumbled on an audio designer in the Netherlands who also happened to design his own microphones. After telling my good friend and partner in crime Alex Buurman who writes reviews about instruments and microphones after testing them, we went to interview Ad van Medevoort, the designer. I completely fell in love with these mics and bought the matched pair we tested there and then. While driving back from the interview I came up with the idea of recording a CD with only a grand piano. As you might have guessed, the first guy I thought of was this friendly well spoken ex student Luke Welch.
I knew that Luke is a talented musician, so I started checking him out on the net to find out what kind of classical pieces he plays. Instantly I felt this could be a break to add some experience to my research on acoustic recording so I called him immediately and he was enthusiastic from the start. So after a few sessions in some pubs with a beer our plans started developing. He chose the pieces, I came up with a real nice deal at Evert Snel piano’s for making use of a Fazioli F308. We set a date to check out the piano and the instrument was exactly what we were looking for. The recording date was set, just after Christmas and the preparation started. Luke studying his pieces and me preparing a light mobile setup with as main mic’s, the van Medevoorts. Also the artwork has to be taken care of so my camera had a thorough cleaning to shoot some pictures for the album.
The day before recording day we had some snowfall but on the day itself the sun bright and skies were blue. A perfect day to set the mood. Luke, Lina and I were off to the venue… The whole day went really smooth and thanks to Lina’s input and her photography skills, as I had my hands full on the recording part, we managed to get everything done in just one day!
At this moment I’m finalizing the mix and master and I’m very excited about the result so far. For both Luke and me this is a kind of a debut and worth every penny and every minute we put into it. Soon I will have a teaser clip on soundcloud. And oh yes! I will also have the album available on Itunes, CD baby, Spotify and best of all I will make in streaming or downloadable in DSD format the the audio perfectionists out there! Watch our social media pages for updates on the release and of course the release party!