I recorded myself giving a virtual “lunchtime” concert on Sunday and basically all that I did in post was to set markers, gaps and LUFS level. There are no repeats as I simply played through with ornamentation and embellishment from the beginning. As the final track, I included one of my favorite “solo” works that never finds it way onto the so-called complete Bach keyboard editions. It might also be the first French Suites recording on a virginal? Pitch level is A=392 and Werckmeister III tuning.
The artwork is my own and all fonts on the cover and in the booklet are open source (I hope!). Recorded at 48kHz/24-bit using Pianoteq directly as audio into Ardour and mastered in Mixbus 32C to -16 LUFS momentary max, 48kHz/16-bit. I think that’s everything!
EDIT: I switched out the Virginal for the Musica Barocca soundfont and used two Dragonfly reverbs to fashion an instrument that is halfway between a lautenwerck and clavichord. The album is now c. 15 minutes longer…This has been a bit of a test album! Next up, the English Suites!
Hello! This is very impressive! I’m not a classical specialist, but music is great! Interesting to realize that the source sounds are going from the plugin!
Did you try to record the midi tracks, and after render them in to audio? How the naturalness can differ?
Best of luck&Thanks!
Thanks! I record direct to audio so as to mimic the experience of recording with microphones. The naturalness should be the exact same if you recorded MIDI and rendered afterwards. In terms of adding realism, I used some room tone generated via a white noise generator + convolver at a level similar to what I hear on other keyboard discs. Here’s a good link which is easy to translate to other DAW setups: Using Logic Pro to generate “air” — HEAR SPOT BARK - Jason Tuttle.
Exactly right. I used the original preset with extended compass enabled. The default tuning is equal so changed to Werckmeister III. I disabled the built-in convo reverb and added some zita-rev1 via JACK (default settings with the dry/wet ratio pushed ever so slightly to the dry side). For the next album (English Suites) I’ll be trying Pianoteq as a plugin within Ardour so I can give Dragonfly reverb a spin given the success using it with some recent choral recordings. However, in this instance it was tremendously satisfying to route everything via JACK. I’d need to keep that workflow going if and when I use any Grandorgue instruments…
