Stepping away from her classical work, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe (‘the reigning Queen of American Song’) and pianist Craig Terry in the release have added their names to the Great American Songbook with the release of As Long As There Are Songs.
The album is a collection of America’s classics and also the first full album to be recorded using a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system and a proprietary recording technique developed by Meyer Sound CEO and co-founder John Meyer.
The recording took place in Meyer Sound’s 57-seat Pearson Theatre, where the Constellation system’s variable acoustics provided a custom acoustic environment for the recording.
The technology provided a performance environment optimised for the artists, while giving listeners a sense of being ‘in the room’ with the performers. During the recording, they performed without the interference of close-field mics or headphones.
‘We live in a digital age when most people listen to music with high compression and limited bandwidth, and this is an issue close to musicians’ hearts,’ John Meyer says. ‘My job is to give artists like Stephanie the tools that bring her closer to her audiences. With this recording, we returned to what some may consider the old school recording style, where musicians play together in the same room, and listeners can trust that they are hearing the performance at its fullest, nothing more, nothing less.’
Full takes were recorded natively at 96kHz, 24-bit resolution. A third of the songs were captured as a single pass, with minimal edits made to the other tracks. No post-process filtering or compression was done during the capture or mastering process.
‘The Meyers’ incredible spirit of generosity combined with their technology allowed us to create a recording with a sound that is honest, generous and real – a disc that magically transports listeners from their car or couch to the feeling of being at our actual live performance,’ says Blythe.
The collaboration between Blythe and Meyer Sound began with an introduction from Cal Performances Director Matías Tarnopolsky, who continues to serve as an advisor. Evans Mirageas served as executive producer with Ian Watson as music editor. John Meyer led the technical team as recording consultant, working with engineers John Pellowe and Miles Rogers, both of Meyer Sound.
John Meyer has been devoted to building audio technology that faithfully reproduces and delivers sound of the highest quality to audiences worldwide. His 2005 recording of Aashish Khan and Zakir Hussain’s Golden Strings of the Sarode was nominated for a Grammy.
More: www.meyersound.com
