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This looks like a fascinating enterprise. Of course, the Silbermann organs were amongst JSB's favourite instruments during his years as one of the most respected organ testers in his region. To get an idea of the beautiful organs and their churches as featured in these Alsace recordings, take a look at the videos posted on the Aeolus site; the sound is surprisingly good on the higher resolution versions. A pity, though, there aren't any indications of microphone placing. With 19 SACDs to get through, all one has to do is work out how to find the real time for intensive listening...
For those interested in technical details, recording engineer Christoph Frommen says “For our recordings we use two completely independent setups: one surround setup with five discrete channels, and an additional two-channel stereo setup. We sometimes use two or four more channels for capturing additional ambience. The microphones we use are all DPA's famous 4006 omnis, of which we own 13, with three of them being the TL (transformerless) version.”
Frommen uses a surround microphone installation known as the 'Polyhymnia pentagon', which draws on the proportions of the surround pentagon defined for loudspeaker installation, while an AB setup was used for the stereo recording.
John
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To my ears there could be quite a difference between mixing down stereo from a surround configuration and dedicated stereo recording. I have a theory that adding in ambience and reflected sound could produce unwanted effects. Maybe there could be phase difference in sound reflected off side and rear walls etc. I can sometimes hear this in live music. For example recently in a cathedral louder passages resulted in sound being reflected from the side walls (solid stone) which added an almost distortion like sound to what I was hearing. I believe I have heard this in some stereo tracks of SACDs and CD's. I am not a sound engineer so maybe this is something others are well aware of. In any case I am glad the engineers of this series have chosen dedicated stereo recordings. I also wonder if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon or is it my imagination?
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So has anyone gotten this yet?
I'm rather tempted but would love to hear opinions first (mostly on playing rather than sonics) as I'm not familiar with the performers.
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Post by jazz1 February 13, 2013 (4 of 26)
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Polarius T said:
So has anyone gotten this yet?
I'm rather tempted but would love to hear opinions first (mostly on playing rather than sonics) as I'm not familiar with the performers.
I have serious doubts about it especially when you can get Ton Koopman
collection for around 75$, stunning performance,
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One point of clarification for this posting: the Silbermann who built the organs in Alsace used in the Aeolus recordings was Andreas, the older brother of Gottfried. Gottfried Silbermann settled in Saxony in the early 1700's and constructed a number of famous organs (Freiburg Cathedral, for example) which Johann Sebastian Bach played and admired. Andreas Silbermann settled in Alsace and did his organbuilding there and in other French-speaking regions (Strasbourg, and Basle Cathedral, for example). Bach was not directly associated with Andreas's work, as he was with Gottfried's.
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Post by Fugue February 21, 2013 (6 of 26)
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Polarius T said:
So has anyone gotten this yet?
I'm rather tempted but would love to hear opinions first (mostly on playing rather than sonics) as I'm not familiar with the performers.
No. It's only $550--I'm waiting for the price to increase so it will seem more valuable.
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Post by dcramer February 21, 2013 (7 of 26)
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Fugue said:
No. It's only $550--I'm waiting for the price to increase so it will seem more valuable.
It's $240, actually. You need to check the most obvious source. I'm VERY tempted - the other JAV recordings I own are fabulous; I'm just not sure if I WANT to hear everything Bach composed for the organ.
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Post by Fugue February 21, 2013 (8 of 26)
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dcramer said:
It's $240, actually. You need to check the most obvious source. I'm VERY tempted - the other JAV recordings I own are fabulous; I'm just not sure if I WANT to hear everything Bach composed for the organ.
Not if ya' wanna buy 'merican. :-)
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Post by dcramer February 22, 2013 (9 of 26)
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Fugue said:
Not if ya' wanna buy 'merican. :-)
The set can be ordered directly from the JAV website and they're located in Washington, DC. I like to support their excellent SACD releases when I can and don't want anyone to be unnecessarily put off by the inflated Amazon prices.
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Thanks for the tip. The label here is in fact Aeolus (though they are organ specialists, too) but what you refer to is a site for (do you read me) pipe organ cds and there you have to look under Organ recordings: French organs.
They give you a 20-mins of samples to listen to, too.
So now I'm just waiting for your first report to come in, dcramer!
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