Congers, NY (February 11, 2011)–Soundkeeper Recordings label founder Barry Diament records his artists in beautiful acoustic spaces using only a pair of microphones and a Metric Halo ULN-8 Mobile I/O interface.
Soundkeeper Recordings’ latest release, Equinox, by Markus Schwartz and his band, Lakou Brooklyn, is featured as Stereophile magazine’s February 2011 Recording of the Month. Schwartz, one of the world’s foremost Haitian percussionists, played Haitian-inspired jazz with Paul Beaudry (acoustic bass), Monvelyno Alexis (electric guitar), and Jean Caze (trumpet and flugelhorn) in an auditorium with stunning acoustics built in 1908.
Diament used a matched pair of Earthworks QTC-1 omni-directional condenser microphones, premium Nordost Valkyrja microphone cables and the Metric Halo ULN-8, paired with his Mac laptop running Metric Halo’s Record Panel. An absorbent baffle of his own design (a modified Jecklin Disk) separated the microphones, which were spaced 16 inches apart.
“With only one microphone feed per playback channel, the result is quite time coherent and focused,” said Diament. “Any imperfections become obvious. With my ULN-8 and the Record Panel, this simple setup does a wonderful job capturing the performance as an audience member would hear it.”
Diament, a long-time Metric Halo user, continued, “During the beta testing, a firmware upgrade ‘turned on’ 192 kHz capability in the ULN-8. I experimented with it and quickly discovered that at this higher rate, a threshold is crossed. Recordings made with the ULN-8 at 24/192 and the Record Panel no longer sound like ‘great digital’ or even ‘great analog.’ For the first time in my experience, they just sound like the microphone feed! As a result, I feel Equinox is easily the best recording I’ve ever made. Thank you B.J. and Metric Halo!”
Consistent with Diament’s enthusiasm, Soundkeeper Recordings has made Equinox available in a range of formats, including 24/192.
Metric Halo
www.mhlabs.com
