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Zenph Studios President John Q. Walker
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The Yamaha Disklavier® Pro is at the heart of a groundbreaking technological achievement that makes it possible to hear "re-performances" of piano recordings — even old or poor ones — in a vivid new light.
Zenph Studios, Inc. in Raleigh, NC has developed a process that analyzes the sound waves in piano recordings and converts them into precise descriptions of the keystrokes and pedaling needed to re-create the original performance. Stored as high-definition MIDI data (known as "XP Mode"), these descriptions spring to life on the Disklavier Pro, the only reproducing piano that can handle the required level of nuance.
The result: not a re-mastered recording, but a note-perfect realization of the original performance, which can be heard live or be recorded on modern equipment. For example, old performances recorded on monaural records can be recreated in surround-sound or stereo. The process can even produce corrected renditions of pieces that were recorded out of tune, or convert recordings of improvised performances into printed sheet music.
Zenph Studios President John Q. Walker describes it as "quite phenomenal to hear something known only from old recordings played afresh in the room."
"Thanks for all Yamaha has done to make this possible," Walker says. "It marks a true revolution in how music will be recorded, produced, and re-recorded."
In May, Zenph presided over a demonstration of the new process as part of a concert at the BTI Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, NC. The audience experienced "live" re-performances of a Chopin Prelude as recorded in 1926 by French pianist Alfred Cortot and Canadian pianist Glenn Gould's 1955 recording of excerpts from Bach's Goldberg Variations. An impromptu 1955 party recording by jazz legend Art Tatum was the company's final demonstration piece. The demonstration was preceded by a live performance featuring Yamaha artist Mei-Ting Sun.
Historically, a standard approach to sub-par recordings has been to "re-master" them by filtering out noise and hiss. However, re-mastering is less than perfect in addressing problems associated with clarity, acoustics, tuning, and the quality of the original instrument and recording equipment. Current filtering processes can even strip away subtle harmonies that were meant to be part of the performance.
"Our process is a leap beyond the recording to the original performance itself," says Walker. "It even snares the individual notes within dense harmonies, so each can be reproduced with their individual shades of touch and dynamics. In a modern recording studio, the re-performance can then become a high quality recording that takes listeners back to the original moment when the artist was at work. It's truly striking to hear the difference between a source recording and our finished product."
"I've worked extensively with John and with Disklavier Pro pianos, and the realism of this process is stunning," says Sun, the winner of the 2005 National Chopin Competition and the 2002 International Piano-e-Competition. "They've created a process that is really going to unlock a wealth of musical possibilities."
