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Hi Ron,

Thanks......Yeah, I like it too...it encompasses pretty much the whole keyboard, complex harmonies as well. It is so clear, it sounds like your head is under the lid, with virtually no distortion...:) and of course the dogshake...LOL.

Light truck, not car. I just wanted in on the whole audiophile thing.

But I will tell you this--whenever I record late at night (the quietest part of the day--no birds, no laughing or screeching children at the park across the street) there will be, without fail, a rusted out light truck AND a motorcycle with mufflers removed, that will pass down the street, one at 11 p.m. and the other at 2 a.m., which will stop and go at the four way stop three houses down at some point during my recording session--usually when I am playing at my absolute best, laying down the performance of a lifetime that will stand the test of time for all generations from now to kingdom come.

P.S.--I love the tuning. It keeps getting better and better!

P.P.S.--Can you record "The Continental 'You Kiss While You're Dancing'" again? Pretty please, with sugar and a cherry on top? ( THIS ONE.) Rodes or Avensons or both, M&H or Weber or both, your choice, totally. I just want to hear the new version!

Sure, be happy to...just have make time for it...getting busy again for work...:)

Yes, sounds familiar!....I guess that's partly why they have sound studios....:)

Yesterday I received the Zenph-Rach that I had ordered. What a treat! It has now been pushed through all of the audio equipment I own. This is the first time I could really compare Stereo v. Binaural, going back and forth between speakers and headsets. Such fun!

Without a doubt, this is the best reproducer recording that I have heard. Of course, credit must also be given to Faust-Harrison and Marc Wienert. Much thought and care went into this recording. I must order the other Zenph issues.

Throughout all of my listening, my ear was telling me that the piano was not tuned in ET, but I couldn't quite define the temperament. Any thoughts on this? It seemed that there might even be differences between the various compositions. That thought struck me in my first listening of the Partita.

As an aside, it's nice to see a photo of Rachmaninoff not looking like Ray Walston. (or, vice-versa)

Hey GP, do you have a catalog available for the links to recordings you've posted? This is such a valuable resource... Is there a box.net link that would show them all??

Ron Koval

Hi Ron, happy to do that, just may take me a few days +....they are in various folders on my box.net account....let me compile them into 1 folder and then post the link.

Ron...started to go through my box.net PW recordings....wow, there is a lot of music here. I am in the process of compiling all of the PW recordings into one folder. it will be EBVT III and ET. Prob the best is for me to post the link to the folder, and then people can check back in the next week or so as I add the recordings to the folder. When I find all the PW recordings, will post that it's finished.

There are single recordings all through my box.net as well as some folders. Here is a fantastic piece I just came across, which I may have not posted because it was a .wav file and a few bass notes were out of tune. I did post this piece as an .mp3...here it is as a .wav file. Box.net will play it as a .wav file. Debussy--La Cathedrale engloutie-- in EBVT III frm Newport Music Festival.wav https://www.box.com/s/14whltt65bw8q16thyt0

I second this, GP, a catalog woud be great for future reference!

Well Ron, not sure if I got them all. I will prob find a few more as I go through all of this music. I did not realize how much was there! There may be some repeats and some that I missed, hopefully there is a good selection in the folder.

I found some recordings I did back in early 2007, a few months after the M&H was delivered. Primitive recording compared to what I do now, never the less it's interesting to hear what the piano sounded like Pre Wapin, Pre Isaac Hammers, and Pre EBVT III and a good ET like Ari's. My tuning back then was ahemmm.....not the greatest either. Enjoy......:)


PIANO WORLD RECORDINGS, 2007-2013, EBVT III AND SOME ET. 1927 MASON & HAMLIN RBB 7FT GRAND PLAYER PIANO. https://www.box.com/s/y88jra5we0t80hyt390b

Thanks GP! I've bookmarked it for future reference and will try and add it to my website.

Yesterday, Bill and I (mostly Bill) worked on a Yamaha G3 that I play once a month at church. It was what Bill called a "rough regulation," which is mostly something to the effect of, "file the hammers and line everything up as needed." Then, he tuned it fairly quickly and made a few fine adjustments to the regulation based on some feedback from me.

Anyway, today, I went back to the church to try the piano with a fresh perspective, and here is what I got--Bethesda Covenant Church's piano in EBVT III:

Scriabin Prelude Op. 11, No. 9

I haven't quite unlocked the secret of this prelude, yet, but I'm starting to understand it better than when I posted a rendition of it pages and pages ago.

--Andy

Very nice playing! Taking your time, emotion, touch... just dropping the notes like you would pick the petals off a flower.

The tuning, and I have good speakers....

Because this is the tech forum, I was listening attentively to the tuning, mic placement etc...

This is a compliment to you. You managed to capture my attention enough to make me forget I was listening to a tuning for a while. But the tuning did suddenly surprise me. The upper bass and the middle treble. Something sounds off.

But it is a very nice recording, and it could very well be because of the recording, the size of my room I am in now, the size of the room you were in etc..etc..etc..

If a friend had sent me this and just said, this guy is good, I am not sure I would of noticed the tuning that much, or I would have said, it's a piano, and it sounds like one.

Anyways, very nice playing.

Accordeur, I am so glad that I was able to pull you into the music for a while! That comment made my heart glow.

Obviously, you are a very sensitive listener and your excellent hearing caught something strange in the bass and middle tenor. Let me give you some details, and then you can assess whether or not this might be what you are hearing.

As some people treat the piano like just another horizontal surface, visual sleuthing reveals that this piano has had sugary coffee spilled into it not once, but twice! It looks as though the first time it happened, the bass strings were replaced. It looks like the second time, a fair section of the wound bi-chords were hit with spatters, enough to seriously effect the tone. Then, in the middle treble, there is a middle string of the tri-chord that has a very obnoxious fast false beat that is throwing off the sound of the unison.

Also, because of time constraints, Bill did not give it the triple-pass concert tuning he sometimes puts on a piano when he visits. Still, I thought it was a very solid, nice-sounding tuning, and the overall tone of the piano was greatly improved with the re-shaped hammers.

And, Scriabin does some pretty far-out stuff with his harmonies--which is why I like EBVT III--because it accentuates them.

I was happy enough with all of that to want to stir the pot a little until Grandpianoman posts a few more recordings! And as to your listening closely into the music--I, for one, would expect nothing less than to be measured against The Ideal to see how far I've missed the mark or how much I might have improved over past performance...

Here is how I oriented the little digital recorder. The picture is of a different piano, but the placement for the recording you heard was essentially the same. It came out of the machine a little heavy in the right channel, so I adjusted for that in CuBase, and I normalized it, and I used some slight compression to bring everything forward a little bit.



Thank you so much for listening and expressing your interest!

--Andy

Thanks Andy,

That explains a lot. I do believe that is what I was hearing.

Thanks again.

What a lovely image...thank you, you guys...Andy and Accordeur

Jim Ialeggio

Very nice Andy, really enjoyed your playing, and the piece.

Just got home from a long trip. I just upgraded my mics, and am enjoying the good sounds from them. I have to learn the optimum placement and such, which will come with practice....I set these up really quick. Here is a short jazz piece by M. Garson...the tuning went a bit south due to the weather change etc, as I was gone over a month. Nevertheless you can hear the quality of the mics. This is in EBVT III. Bill will be coming to my home to tune both pianos in his ET via Marpurg at the end of June.....will be recording them with these new mics!

M.Garson Jazz piece (new mics) https://www.box.com/s/iw5zgk8utfwz3ta2sgwe


addendum......Here is the same file, but in the .flac form....quite a difference, especially with headphones.... https://www.box.com/s/n6gpaux18wayk2gq67kr


Might as well post this one .......recorded right after the one above. .FLAC format M. Garson Jazz https://www.box.com/s/nn1ban48kld9z32dp5vc (I posted this one awhile back with my original mics.)

mp3 version https://www.box.com/s/gz5b5yvx6lubgj6dyetf

GP, really enjoyed that second one; it brought a smile to my Sunday morning cup of coffee!

The recording is quite good. However it's in the same key. It get old and boring. Try changing keys (say f#). Let me know how that works for ya

There will always be technicians who perceive anything but ET as sounding "out of tune". Piano technicians have hammered it into their heads that all 5ths have to have the same, virtually imperceptible amount of tempering. Otherwise, it sounds, "off".

However, the people we tune for do not perceive it the same way. In fact, there is a lot of evidence that it sounds a little too sterile or somehow lacking in warmth. Any of we technicians who have had many years experience using Well Temperaments or other kinds of alternatives to ET know what our clients most often like best.

So, just as Steinway as a manufacturer has always done, I tend to disregard what the technicians say but take notice of what the artists and people who actually use the pianos say. Otherwise, I would have been out of business long ago or at least had surely learned what did not work.

I keep reading the many comments about how non-equal temperaments wouldn't work, wouldn't work and therefore should not even be attempted as being sheer foolishness or folly. Those comments are always made by people who have virtually no experience with or understanding of the subject.

I found my courage and tuned the Lester, again. I used the SAT for the temperament octave and points north, but then did the wound bi-chords and points south by ear. This time, since the piano was riding a little sharp, I let it stay sharp.

Anyway, when I worked on the bass, I referred to instructions on David Pinnegar's YouTube vid, "Tuning bass piano notes with harmonic accordance on piano." Also, rxd seemed to be sending signals across the pond, critiquing. Bill seemed to be judging my unisons, in particular. Isaac was there staring at the coils. Jim was wondering why I haven't measured the wound tri-chords, yet. (I have an active imagination, you know. The living room in my head is very large. It was a fun party and I wish they could have been there! )

The song is "Moonlight Becomes You" (Johnny Burke/Jimmy Van Heusen) from the movie Road to Morocco. The date on the sheet music says 1942 (well, actually, it says MCMXLII, but who's counting?). It is in the key of F maj., mostly, but does lots of chromatic stuff. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--I am amazed (and grateful) that the arrangers of this music managed to fit symphonies into notes that ten normal fingers can play. What you hear from me here is a straight reading--nothing fancy and no shenanigans, and yes, I took the repeat.

This was recorded with my little Tascam DP-004. The only processing was normalizing--no EQ or reverb, etc. And, following GP's lead, I present it to you today in both mp3 and flac!

Hope you like it.

Moonlight Becomes You (mp3)

Moonlight Becomes You (flac)

--Andy