The Pianos
The two Steinway 9-foot concert grand pianos from the 1920's have retained their grandeur over time (both were selected as Concert & Artist instruments -- serial numbers 213182 & 226857). One was restored at the Steinway Restoration Center in New York; the other restored privately by one of the best Steinway technicians in the country. (This piano was at the Manhattan School of Music in NYC for many years -- Rachmaninoff performed on this instrument many times during it's residency there).
The Recording Equipment - doing more with less
The Microphones
A pair of vintage Neumann U-87 microphones are the ideal choice for piano, strings, instrumental and chamber recordings. Probably the best known and the most widely used studio microphones, they have large, dual-diaphragm capsules. This particular pair of microphones have been magnificently modified by Stephen Paul Audio -- reducing the microphone capsule's thickness from Neumann's original 3 microns to a mere 1.5 microns (the average human hair is 100 microns thick). The result is a dynamic range that is simply amazing. A Neumann TLM-130 and large-diaphragm Advanced Audio mods using the Neumann RK-47 adds a richness to beautifully round out the microphone collection.
The PXW-X70 4K Camera
Video Recordings are recorded in 4K and features a 1.0" type Exmor R CMOS Sensor with a resolution of 20 megapixels. With an Optical 12x ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T lens, it is highly sensitive and records at high resolution suitable for broadcast.
- Depending on the specific application requirements, final recordings are rendered as a 4K or 1920 x 1080 file in an .mp4 format. (Other formats are available depending on the application requirements of the sponsors.)
The Microphone Pre-Amplifier
The John Hardy M-1 Mic Preamp is among the finest mic preamps in the world. It provides the accuracy and transparency that is missing in other mic preamps. No matter what your application, the M-1 provides superior sound quality. The world's best input transformer (Jensen JT-16-B), best op-amp (990 discrete op-amp) and the elimination of all capacitors from the signal path all combine to provide the cleanest signal possible.
The Audio Interface: RME
The German company RME presents the world's most versatile PCI Express audio interface - the HDSPe AIO. The advanced Input-Output interface shines with the latest 192kHz AD- and DA-converters, with more than 112dB signal to noise ratio. This is a professional "soundcard" to create its signature sound.
The Audio and Video Software: Only Industry Standards!
The Digital Audio Workstation utilizes server technology provides outstanding software flexibility for your final project, including the option of recording at the highest quality possible (24-bit/192kHz). For Audio Recording and Mastering: MAGIX--Sequoia
Plug-in Bundles: In addition to the plug-ins within Sequoia 13, Waves (Mercury & API Collection), Lexicon--PCM Native Total Bundle
Solid State Logic (4000 Collection & Duende), Sonnox (Oxford Elite), iZotope--RX10 Restoration Suite
Asus Desktop (Video)
For Video & Graphics: Adobe -- Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, and Photoshop. With the top of the line, Asus Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard with 64GB of G.Skill Trident Z Royal RAM, an AMD CPR Ryzen 9 3950X, (16 Core, 32 Thread Processor with a 3.5 GHz Base), an NVIDIA Titan RTX 24GB video card, a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 and 2TB Sabrent Rocket Q4 NVMe 4.0 SSD drives, this computer has the resources to tackle any video project.