Post by Beagle December 29, 2009 (1 of 22)
|
|
I have been honoured with a 'hot off the press' copy of this disc from Ray, and have listened to it maybe a half-dozen times now. I couldn't review it even if I felt qualified to do so (no review spot till the disc is issued, I presume), but perhaps a few words will help feed the anticipation -- not that any IsoMike offering ever needed any more publicity than "it's being issued!"
Like all the 'Boomer' generation, I bought and played a half-dozen guitars -- but hung the last of them up on the wall as mere decoration because...
* there's thirteen hundred and fifty two
* guitar cases in Nashville
* and any one that unpacks his guitar could play
* twice as better than I will
So my view of Stephen Lyman's guitarism is that of an admittedly talentless outsider.
What I can vouch for is that Lyman's guitar is neither reverberant nor distant, but Right There in the room with the listener -- a very successful application of IsoMike miking: bravo Ray & Co.* And bravo Stephen Lyman, who elicits notes from those six slinky strings of his instrument as surely as if it were a keyboard, namely none of those dreaded zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzink! sounds.
I was impressed to discover that most of the compositions on this disc are Lyman's own. His avowed goal on the album was “sonority, song and hertitage”; what this translates into, musically, is mellow but interesting simplicity. The music exhibits a consistency of idiom which makes it surprisingly difficult to distinguish Lyman's own works from the Takemitsu and Bartók included here, without consulting the notes and track display. In all these pieces, the music moves unagressively through tonalities which are more than pentatonic but less than dodecatonic -- my instinct tells me that there are lots of sevenths and ninths, and maybe thirteenths.
____________
*Despite the inimate feeling of the recording, the notes list 18 participants in addition to Lyman and Kimber -- quite a crowd, but you won't hear them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
QUOTE: What I can vouch for is that Lyman's guitar is neither reverberant nor distant, but Right There in the room with the listener -- a very successful application of IsoMike miking:
By what Beagle said looks another great recording from IsoMike.
This mid mike distance seems good, close-up mike positions some times are good too, very used in rock or Jazz music.
A close-up mike position is the second best for orchestral music, my favorite is a mid distance like Beagle inform above.
|
|
|
Post by zeus December 31, 2009 (3 of 22)
|
|
Beagle said:
I have been honoured with a 'hot off the press' copy of this disc from Ray, and have listened to it maybe a half-dozen times now.
Same here. It's a very fine disc. No incorrect mic technique that I could detect.
|
|
|
Post by Beagle January 1, 2010 (4 of 22)
|
|
Has not Ray Kimber written somewhere "No close miking"? I.e. no cheap tricks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beagle said:
Has not Ray Kimber written somewhere "No close miking"? I.e. no cheap tricks.
About mike capture for classical music, I remember Chandos orchestral recordings was made in a long distance mike position in the 1970s years, the brazilian magazines and audiophiles call these
LPs ''Telescopic Recordings'' and we all laughs alot about the Chandos incompetence and bad taste.
Good times those!!
|
|
|
Post by Beagle January 8, 2010 (6 of 22)
|
|
As stated above, I am not an expert on guitar matters, so I played the CD-side recently for a colleague who is also a serious guitarist -- without telling him what he was listening to, with the following results:
1. he spotted the chitarra, saying the guitar 'didn't sound like a regluar guitar, maybe smaller';
2. he spotted the Takemitsu as 'a bit oriental-sounding, the far east, maybe Japan...';
3. he did not hear the Bartók as other than 'more music by Lyman';
4. he said the music reminded him of Lenny Breau's "Cabin Fever" album* '...but cleaner playing'.
_________
* http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jcfqxquhldje
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beagle said:
As stated above, I am not an expert on guitar matters, so I played the CD-side recently for a colleague who is also a serious guitarist -- without telling him what he was listening to, with the following results:
1. he spotted the chitarra, saying the guitar 'didn't sound like a regluar guitar, maybe smaller';
2. he spotted the Takemitsu as 'a bit oriental-sounding, the far east, maybe Japan...';
3. he did not hear the Bartók as other than 'more music by Lyman';
4. he said the music reminded him of Lenny Breau's "Cabin Fever" album* '...but cleaner playing'.
_________
* http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jcfqxquhldje
I wonder why you play the CD layer for him?? Why not the Hi-Def SACD layer?? Or I misunderstood your post?
|
|
|
Post by Beagle January 10, 2010 (8 of 22)
|
|
FullRangeMan said: I wonder why you play the CD layer for him?? Why not the Hi-Def SACD layer?? Or I misunderstood your post?
Simple: this was at our place of work (my sacd system is NOT portable). Also, I was interested in his judgment of the music and guitarism, not the 'soundstage'. PS: I was expecting someone to ask this question :-)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Maybe you could invite this guitarman to listen a real Hi-Resolution SACD in your system, musicians usually have a musical ear.
Would not be bad new SACD fan.
|
|
|
Post by Beagle January 12, 2010 (10 of 22)
|
|
FullRangeMan said: Would not be bad new SACD fan.
It is a sad but universal truth that musicians are not audiophiles and vice versa. David's instrument is his guitar, not his stereo.
|
|
