A few nights ago, Terri and I were recording a session at Octave Studios. There were two musicians: a drummer and a resonator guitar player that also sang. Great music, wonderful session (the resonator guitar is one of my all time favorites!).
The track was for an upcoming Octave release in our Art of HiFi series, The Guitar.
Once we'd finished tracking (the cool guy word for recording) we transferred the files to the mixroom at Octave where everything is played back over a pair of aspen FR30 loudspeakers and a set of BHK electronics, and Audioquest Dragon cables. The track sounded amazing, just like we'd hoped: in the room.
I glanced up to see what the two musicians thought.
"Amazing. Never heard anything like it," said Julian, the guitarist with a concerned look on his face. "Maybe too real? Like we were standing right there in the room."
The drummer agreed.
"Kind of like undressing in front of people. Everything...exposed like that. Not sure how comfortable that makes me feel."
You know, they had a point. One I hadn't considered from the performer's point of view.
Commercial recordings, even the best of them, have a kind of sanitized squeaky, safe, and clean feel to them. All dressed up and ready to to go.
Recordings captured with the best microphones and the highest resolution possible—simple ones designed to place the musicians in the room and get as close as technically possible—are in a class all by themselves.
Live. Naked. Exposed in all their musical glory.
