Scoping Software: Piano, Harp, and Harpsichord.

Bach, Johann Sebastian: Bach for Harpsichord. (Including the French Suite Number 6.) Albert Fuller, harpsichord. Recorded in 1992, at the Presbyterian Church, Rye, New York. Engineer: Keith Johnson. 55+ minutes. Reference Recordings RR-51CD.

This release is very clean, in spite of the somewhat distant and reverberant sound -- a sometime RR trademark. There is an abundance of church-like space around the instrument and plenty of high-frequency energy for tweeter buffs. The sound is well focused, displaying none of the annoying diffuseness that many keyboard recordings exhibit.

DPL decoding tightens up the center focus and also reduces the amount of reverb coming from up front, shifting it backwards to around the listener. The upshot is an improved sound for all listening positions. Simulated ambiance, delivered via my Yamaha DSP-A3090, worked better than one might expect, given the already abundant reverb on the recording. The newer Yamaha DSP-A1 that I had on hand to review delivered similar results. The overall effect was quite good, actually.

Bach, Johann Sebastian: Goldberg Variations. Gershon Silbert, piano. Recorded in 1994, "in a church." Engineer: Harry Munz. 58+ minutes. Bequest 10007.

OK, this is one of the best recorded Goldbergs I have heard. The piano displays no fuzziness and no phasiness, and the intimacy of the presentation puts the device right there in your listening room. There is enough hall acoustics in the background to slightly simulate a "you-are-there situation," but you are sitting pretty dose to the front, "there," and if you crank the gain up enough (and your amp has the ability and your speakers can stand it), the release does a great job of simulating a "Silbertis-here" situation. I did a quick comparison between this disc and a copy of Glenn Gould's 1980 Columbia release and I have to admit that I was impressed with what old engineering could do. However, this disc sounds better. (An added bonus is that you do not have listen to Gould singing along with his playing -- something that is for me often so distracting that end up listening to his humming more than his playing.)

Pro Logic decoding moves us from front row to the back of the hall, minus the hall reverb. I found that it only worked well if one is forced to listen from well off axis. DSP hall synthesis was a mixed bag. Larger room simulations just did not dovetail well with the close-miked nature of the sound and only the smaller of the two jazz-club simulations available from my processor really worked decently. My Yamaha DSP-A3090 (as well as the DSP-A1) does have a Concert Video mode, and when set to its Classical Opera sub-setting, it worked better than any of the hall simulations for anyone sitting somewhat away from the sweet spot. This recording is almost certainly at its best when sitting in the best seat in the house, with the gain cranked up reasonably high, and with a straight, two-channel stereo playback function selected.

Bach, Johann Sebastian: The Goldberg Variations. Joseph Payne, harpsichord. Recorded in 1990 at the Forde Estate, Boston. Engineer: Scott Kent. 77+ minutes. BIS 519.

As with many other BIS releases, this recording has excellent instrumental detail and stage presentation, combined with a just-right hall-ambiance feel. The result is a good, close-up, "you-are-there" sound rather than the image of an instrument actually in a home listening room. Even so, the detail in this recording is exceptional. Indeed, you can dearly hear the action of the harpsichord mechanicals as the music rolls forth. Those with potent subwoofers may be put off by this, because the result is a continual, deep thump/rumble underlying the music. Listeners with stand-mounted speaker systems that deliver exemplary direct-field performance may be more satisfied with this recording than those with wider-bandwidth, wider-dispersion systems that are more at home with large, symphonic works.

DPL decoding added a very slight sense of increased distance and tighter focus to the sound, while the surround speakers contributed a pleasant amount of increased hall reverb. Simulating additional reverb, via my Yamaha A3090 surround amp, worked well also. However, the results, although decent with any of its standard-sized, concert-hall settings, were more satisfactory when a smaller-room simulation was selected.

Buxtehude, Deitrich: Harpsichord Music. Lars Mortensen, harpsichord. Recorded in 1991, at Frederiksdal Castle, Virum, Denmark. Engineer: Finn Kaufmanns. 63+ minutes. Kontrapunkt 32069.

The sound here is very smooth and dean, with the nuances of the harpsichord dearly revealed. The listening position is fairly dose, with a nice sense of space around the instrument. The hall reverb is balanced and effective. There was occasionally a bit of background rumble, usually masked by the performance, that sounded like traffic noise.

DPL decoding was excellent, with better focus and an increase in apparent listening distance that will appeal to many listeners. The surround speakers added a pleasant additional sense of space further back into the room. Synthesized ambiance did not work outstandingly well with any setting of either of my surround processors (here, I am referring to my main system's DSP-A3090 and the DSP-A1000 in my smaller system), although the smallest room settings were passable. The standard concert-hall-sized settings tended to make the close-up-recorded harpsichord sound elephantine.

Mendelssohn, Felix: Silbert Plays Mendelssohn. Gershon Silbert, piano. Recorded in 1997, in Tuxedo, New York. Engineer: Harry Munz. 65+ minutes. Athena 10011.

Interestingly, I was allowed to hear a recordable-CD version of this release, before it was turned into a final, stamped pressing. The sound of a recordable CD should be identical to the stamped final version -- or to the master tape, for that matter. Later on, I received a copy of the final product and the sound, as far as I can tell, was no different from the sample I used to write this review. As with an earlier recording that Silbert did of the Goldberg Variations (also recorded by Munz), the piano in this release displays no fuzziness and no phasiness, and the close-up sound (possibly even more wide staged than with the Bach recording) invokes a "performer-is-here" listening situation more than one of the listener being there in the recording environment. Of course, this assumes that the amplifier gain is adequate and one's speakers are up to the reproducing job. While at lower volume levels this kind of detail and intimacy may not simulate live music as well as a more in-hall simulation would, it certainly does a better job of highlighting Mr. Silbert's fingering talents than even a live performance in most large halls would.

Pro Logic decoding moves us back considerably, and with the amount of recorded reverb on the disc not being particularly enhanced by the process, I am not sure that subjectively, moving further from the instrument is a good idea. However, as is usually the case, off-axis listening was subtly enhanced by the center steering. I,deed, off axis, and with the "35-mm Enhanced" function of my DSP-A3090 engaged, the effect was quite presentable, because a subtle amount of hall reverb was then simulated and yet the steering up front kept the piano centered. As with the Bach recording, conventional hall simulations did not work particularly well, but the Classical Opera simulation the combination of center steering and ambiance synthesis worked satisfactorily enough to satisfy those who prefer to listen to piano playing from somewhat further back than the front row.

I also had a chance to listen to this release briefly with the Lexicon DC-1, and that processor's Music Logic function worked outstandingly well, with no huge increase in subjective distancing. The DC-1 performed in a similar fashion with virtually every two-channel recording I tried it with.

Rhapsody. Works by Gershwin, including Rhapsody In Blue; Three Preludes; and assorted songs, transcribed for piano and small orchestra by Joe Cea. Hyperion Knight, piano and conducting. Recorded in 1997, at the First United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, NM. Engineers: John Atkinson, Wes Philips, and Steven Lee. Stereophile 010.

This is small-scale Gershwin (in particular, the Rhapsody In Blue, when contrasted with the Grofe orchestration) and its existence invites comparison with another small-scale version: the Michael Tilson Thomas and Los Angeles Philharmonic players Gershwin-original transcription, released on Columbia 39699 back in 1985. The latter was engineered by Bud Graham and Tim Geelan, and in my 1994 book, High Definition Compact Disc Recordings, I gave it a solid "A" rating. Although pretty good, the score still fell short of the "A+" ratings I reserved for releases demonstrating the very best in recorded sound, because of a somewhat diffuse-sounding piano, although it was at least properly centered on the stage.

The booklet that comes with the Stereophile release shows the presentation's high-end orientation by listing the assorted and very impressive pieces of hardware (recorders, cables, etc.) used to make the recording. The most significant items, after the recording environment itself, will of course be the microphones (in this case, B&K 4012 cardioids and 4003 omnis) and their positioning, which in this recording had them arranged in a configuration that reminds me of what John Eargle has done scads of times in his work for Delos. (Eargle uses Sanken CU-41s for the center ORTF array, while Atkinson used two 4012s.)

This hardware parade was interesting, because the booklet that came with the Columbia release also included an equipment list of its own, something that is unusual for a mainstream record producer. The microphones used were as impressive as what the Stereophile listing displayed, being B&K 4003s, AKG C-12s, and Neumann KM-84s. (No doubt, these were utilized in a more scattered manner than the "purist" approach John Atkinson employed.) Lots of other top-grade hardware was also listed, and in this case, at least in terms of equipment, the mainstreamers were right up there with the esoteric crowd.

Anyway, the Stereophile release displays an excellent small-room ambiance, with very good soundstaging, with considerably more intimacy than the Columbia version. It also demonstrates some of the best imaging I have heard in some time, with much of this no doubt being the result of the wide-staged spread of the instruments during the recording session. Clearly, the perceived sense of separation on the recording was enhanced by the spacing between the players. This was a neat trick, and shows that Atkinson and company knew what they were doing in their quest for a well-focused soundstage.

One thing that struck me about this release involves the instruments chosen for the Rhapsody In Blue. The Columbia release, for all of the smallness of its original-Gershwin scale, was still performed by a traditional jazz orchestra. However, the Stereophile version includes some unusual items, a marimba in particular, that I thought downright odd sounding -- although the marimba certainly sounded like a marimba. Its use tended to unsettle me, and I had to continually remember to evaluate the disc for its engineering, rather than its aesthetics. Normally I do not comment on performances, but I also have to note that the Tilson Thomas led group did a better job of transmitting the spirit and snap of the Rhapsody than the Knight-led group did (although Knight himself is a superb pianist, and he dearly outclassed his supporting players). The Columbia release just had a degree of professional-musician sounding punch and life to it that the newer release just did not display, and the ensemble had a better stage blend than the admittedly better-imaging newer recording.

However, it could be argued that the Columbia was also too bright sounding (the usual close-mike-generated brittleness) and in one respect the Stereophile release had it all over the version by the mainstream outfit: the piano. Atkinson managed to keep it well focused and in proper perspective, in relation to the supporting players. The piano in the Columbia release, as is common in a lot of recordings, was a tad too large and somewhat phasey sounding for my sound system and taste.

Interestingly, the piano In the other works on the Stereophile release sounded even better than it did in the Rhapsody. In his accompanying comments, Atkinson noted that the lid was off during the recording of the latter work (in order for Knight to better be able to see the people he was leading) and that the lid was in place (and probably set at full stick) for the solo work. In addition, during the solo presentations the piano was also rotated into the usual sideways position, with the open lid facing the audience/microphone area. The focus delivered by the lid and the more conventional positioning definitely aided the recording team in capturing a better piano sound, and the Preludes and other solo-piano material are state-of-the-art in terms of engineering.

DPL decoding was quite good. There was some minor lateral squeezing with the Rhapsody, but the well defined, widely spread out soundstage did not allow the center collapse that often happens when center steering is employed with conventional recordings. On the solo-piano work, the instrument was subjectively moved further away, which I felt better simulated what I would hear at a live performance. (I usually do not sit too close to the performers, because I do not want to hear a lot of piano mechanical noise and I tend to prefer the additional hall reverb that a more distant seat delivers.) DSP hall simulations, at least with my Yamaha DSP-A3090, worked quite well with any of the small environments, such as Cellar Club (seems appropriate for Gershwin, don't you think?), with the larger hall simulations coming across as a tad bloated. I also gave the release a quick run with the DSP-A1 I had on hand, and the jazz-dub simulations it had also worked quite well with this material, particularly the Bottom Line and Village Vanguard.

Steinhardt and Mayorga: Violin and Piano. Arnold Steinhardt and Lincoln Mayorga, Playing works by Edvard Grieg, Fritz Kreisler, Amy Beach, and Victor Herbert. Recorded in 1996, at Sheffield Lab Studios, Los Angeles. Engineer: Doug Sax. 49+ minutes. Sheffield 10063.

This is a short disc for something produced well into the digital era. However, there is a lot of bang for the buck compressed into the small time frame. The overall sound displays a nice mid-hall perspective and the spacing between the performers is dose enough to not seem surreal. Sax used an M-S microphone technique, and this can work well indeed with material on a scale as small as this. The ambiance is not extreme, and the sound is detailed, even though it does not simulate a dose-up perspective.

DPL decoding takes the already narrow stage and makes it into mono. Not good. If Dolby decoding is your option, use the phantom-center mode. DSP synthesis, via my Yamaha DSP-A3090 was only good with the smallest room simulation I could come up with: Cellar Club. This recording works quite well with straight-stereo playback.

Time Tracks. Jeann Golan, piano, playing works by Beethoven, Cornelius Cardew, Alvin Curan, Enrique Granados, and Conlon Nancarrow. Recorded ca. 1996, in New York City. Engineering by Seltzer Sound. 73+ minutes. Albany Troy 211.

Albany is another of those recording outfits who turn out often demo grade material, without all the hype one finds with typical "audiophile" labels. The sound here has excellent focus, with none of the sometimes fuzzy, overly wide soundstaging and bloatedness one sometimes encounters with other piano recordings. The subjective stage is fairly close but we are definitely not on top of the piano, or inside of it. The dynamics are also notable, and the small-room ambiance suits the instrument and the musical material quite well.

DPL decoding gives us an essentially mono situation, although the center steering did work to good effect when sitting well off axis. Choose either the center speaker or a phantom center as required. DSP took on bloated proportions with all but the smallest room simulation my Yamaha processor could come up with. I will note that the Music Logic function of the Lexicon DC-1 I had on hand at the time I was checking out this disc did a better job of preventing a collapse to center than the Yamaha DSP-A3090 did with any of its center-steered modes, and also was better at simulating the ambiance of the concert hall.

Two Harps As One. Works by J.S. Bach, Jean Philippe Rameau, Ottorino Respighi, Isaac Albeniz, and others. Anne Adams and Patricia Harris, harps. Recorded ca. 1995, at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California. Engineer: David Luke. 57+ minutes. Two Harps As One AAPH95.

If you look at the stock number of this disc, you will see that it stands for the initials of the two performers, year 95. Yes, this is almost a "vanity press" type item, but the performance and sound quality is exemplary, and the two ladies involved, plus the engineer, do not have to feel inferior in the least to what the big outfits produce.

The overall sound is remarkable: very close up and intimate, delivering a genuine "we-are-here" sound that any audio enthusiast would have to be enthusiastic about. The amount of captured hall reverb is modest, and the way it dovetails into the direct sound results in a fine simulation of the way things would sound if you were listening to these ladies in a drawing room, with your seat right in the front row. Needless to say, the imaging is precise, with each harp being reproduced almost monophonically from each speaker, but with just the right amount of ambiance around each instrument.

DPL decoding squeezes slightly, but you have to remember that there is really no center information in this release to speak of, so the steering does not cause any kind of collapse into the center. The slight increase in distance that results from the subtle contributions of the center speaker tends to move us back a few rows and into a slightly larger room. The nature of the recording really demands that the phantom-center mode be chosen, although straight stereo will prove better than DPL for a lot of listeners.

DSP synthesis worked well with the very smallest room simulation my Yamaha DSPA3090 processor could produce, namely Cellar Club, which is a jazz-club simulation. The results were as good as anything the Lexicon DC1 processor I had on hand for review purposes could deliver. The close-up nature of the recording made other simulations, including any of the Yamaha's or DC-1's concert halls, a tad cavernous, and in some cases, extremely cavernous. However, with smaller concert-hall simulations, and if the surround levels were backed off a tad (my normal setting for most of the DSP-A3090's simulations, anyway), those wanting to hear these ladies play in a larger environment would probably achieve satisfactory results, without too much soundstage bloating.

Perhaps the best concert-hall simulation was provided by the A3090's Concert Video (Classical/Opera) setting, where a bit of steered center-channel fill kept the performers from sounding too far apart on a distant stage. I did not have the Yamaha DSP-A1 on hand when I auditioned this item, but I would imagine that it would treat this material similarly to how the A3090 did.

Utterback, Joe: Blues & Ballads at the Movies. Recorded in 1996, at the Music Hall, Tarrytown, NY. Engineer: Patricia Duciaume. 73+ minutes. Connoisseur Society 4215.

Apparently, Sony is not the only company using the Super Bit Mapping process to master compact discs. This release, basically a series of jazz improvisations for solo piano based on 12 melodies written for movies, employs a 96 kHz sampling rate that ought to satisfy anyone worried about such things, although I should point out here that the final result is still a 16bit compact disc.

The overall sound is spectacularly good, and one of the best piano recordings I have heard, with a close-up and subjectively "you-are-there" sensation that those who favor the front seats at live performances will get plenty excited about. The dynamics, in particular, are impressive -- and will be particularly striking to those who are unfamiliar with the sound of a live piano performance of music of this kind.

Pro Logic decoding moves us back away from those front-row seats, and tightens focus. While it was not all that I wanted, I think that some listeners will prefer the more distant perspective. My Yamaha DSP-A3090 processor has a 35 mm Enhanced version of DPL that adds a degree of ambiance to the extracted surround information, and it worked wonders with this recording. Very realistic hall simulation.

Standard DSP worked only fairly well. This is a subjectively dose-up-sounding recording and most concert-hall simulations enlarged the piano to elephantine proportions. The smallest jazz-club simulation available to me, Cellar Club, was decent. Straight stereo or the above-noted modified version of DPL worked best.