Andy Duncanson And The High Cross Sound IPI - Pure DSD

Some Gritty Chi-Town Blues

Although apparently recorded in a studio, there is an ambiance, spontaneity and a laid-back character to the performance that you normally don’t hear in an over-controlled studio environment. Almost like a live gig ... but without the poor acoustics and extraneous noise. Excellent acoustics, dynamics and presence. According to the notes this was a multi-mic recording that was mixed in real time to 2 track and recorded on a 1/4” Mara (MCI) analog tape machine with the DSD transfer coming from that tape (can’t much closer to the source than that). My DSD 128 version puts me almost in the room with the guys. I say “almost” because ..... and I’m being picky here .... I feel the mix (done in real time) doesn’t seem to do justice to the keyboards. The keyboards are a bit thin and distant on most of the tracks, at least to my ears. For shits-n-giggles, it would have been very interesting to record these guys with one (1) mic: an AEA R88 stereo ribbon feeding a D.W. Fearn tube mic preamp and with that signal being used for the DSD capture. Nonetheless, Highly Recommended!

Direct to two-tracks in a nice studio acoustic

This is a nice Chicago blues style performance recorded in an open studio (no headphones, no booths) and mixed on-the-fly directly to two-track analog tape. The sound is warm and relaxed, giving a nice sense of the space in which the musicians are performing. Andy Gravino has done a great job engineering this recording. I look forward to more from his High Cross Sound studio and IPI. Well done, to all involved!