Making the Second Solo CD

The past two days I helped produce a great recording project (more on that another day) and it reminded me of this post dated 6/7/2004 from the original HTML Horn Notes Blog, one of the very first posts I put up, which gives good insights into the recording process.

This past weekend I got as far as I am going to get before early August toward editing my second solo CD [released as Canto]. Making a CD is certainly an interesting process and is in a way a blessing and a curse. Let me explain.

First, I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to make this second CD and to work with great people on it. The pianist, Eckart Sellheim, sounds fabulous, the engineer Clarke Rigsby is one of the best around, I can’t imagine working with a better producer than my colleague Sam Pilafian, and the music came together really well. So far we have edited the Nielsen Canto Serioso, the Schumann Adagaio and Allegro, the Danzi E-flat sonata, and the Madsen Sonata; I ran out of studio time and will edit the Gliere Nocturne, the Schmid Im Tiefsten Walde, and the Cooke Rondo in August and then master the CD.

Concept wise I tried to focus on quality works with most of them being works that have not been recorded a lot. We recorded the CD over three days in December and March. The March date was particularly grueling but with the great ear of Sam Pilafian we got it all recorded well.

The process of editing, which is where I am now, is really ear opening. The first step is listening to all the takes and making a map for editing. The painful aspect of this is you have to listen to and clearly mark all your mistakes and edit around them, but you also mark the best takes too which is very positive. Even looking at the mistakes you begin to quantify tendencies which is great. On my first CD [Les Adieux] I learned that I had a tendency to end phrases sharp, although you won’t hear this on the CD as I edited out those problems. On this CD I did not hear any of this tendency in editing (yes!) but this time I learned that the little noise I have noted lately when I release my second valve no matter how much oil I pour on was, on the high quality equipment used in editing, magnified into a huge clank, especially on the takes from March. One of the original “gummy rubber” bumpers on my Paxman 25A died last fall and I need to find something quieter than cork or drive belt to replace it with. We edited around a lot of the clanks and hopefully this can be addressed further in mastering.

Back to the process, after making the map of the best takes you do the editing digitally with the engineer. The curse of making a CD is, after beginning editing, you simply won’t listen to another CD of the same type the same way ever again. You are very aware of the process, almost too aware. You begin to tune out the process when you are away from it for a while, but when you are in the thick of it, as I am now, I can’t help but listen to every recording I hear very critically. Anything short of perfection suddenly sticks out; where I once heard a forest, now I hear trees. This awareness is sort of a curse but also a gift in a way, as I can right now in particular more easily recognize recordings that are of the highest quality.

After editing and making the best use of all the takes you “master” the CD. After making the first CD I know that mastering is nothing short of voodoo magic! Mastering involves processing the sound yet again in a different manner than was used in editing. It is hard to explain in words but when you listen to before and after versions side by side you can tell that mastering does something very important to the sound and also you become very aware that there are horn CDs out there that either were not mastered or were not really professionally mastered.

In any event, I really like how the CD sounds now and have very high hopes for the final product. Again, I feel very fortunate to be able to make this second CD but it has again altered how I listen to CDs. A curse and a blessing.