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Pyramix Recording Snaps Up A Juno

 James Ehnes' ‘Homage’, Produced On Pyramix, Wins Canadian Recording Award

Switzerland, June 2009: A Merging Technologies Pyramix system was used to record, edit and mix ‘Homage’, the 2008 album by renowned Canadian violinist James Ehnes, which has now won Classical Album of the Year at the Juno Awards, Canada's equivalent of the Grammies. The album sees Ehnes, accompanied only by piano player Edward Laurel, playing some of the finest violins in the world from the private Fulton Collection. A track from ‘Homage’ was included on the free CD accompanying the March 2009 edition of Gramophone, alongside a review where it was described as having been “stunningly recorded”. The video disc that accompanies the CD won the DVD Of The Month award in the same magazine.

‘Homage’ was recorded and produced in 2007 in the USA, at the Fulton Performing Arts Centre in Redmond, Washington state, by producer and recording engineer Tim Martyn. Martyn, who was the original founder of New York's Classic Sound Inc and now runs his Phoenix Audio location recording company from Glen Rock, New Jersey, just outside New York, has been a Pyramix owner for over ten years, using it to provide broadcast recording and production services for the Baltimore and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras, amongst other clients. Like most Phoenix Audio productions, ‘Homage’ was recorded into Pyramix at high resolution (24-bit, 96kHz), using only high-quality Grace mic preamps and Apogee A-D converters on the front end, with a vintage RCA44 ribbon microphone appropriately chosen by Martyn as the primary spot mic on the unique violins and violas played by Ehnes during the recording. Once completed, the recordings of Ehnes and the piano never left Pyramix, the DAW being used for both editing, mixing, and production of the final CD master.

"Juno awards may be overshadowed in the USA by their 'big brother', the Grammies," comments Martyn, "but James Ehnes has won several of both, so we consider it a great achievement that he’s been honoured not only in his own country, but also in the USA. A great deal of work went into the recording, which was also a video shoot for the DVD that was released concurrently with the CD — we were concerned about the noise the camera crew might make during takes, but they were terrific.

“Pyramix is an incredibly well-behaved and adaptable system to use on all sorts of remote recording work, because it can be easily integrated and synchronised with all sorts of other gear, as we had to do on this video project.  Moreover, for any type of classical music production, the choice of system is simple: Pyramix has a music editing interface for doing ultra-fine work which is unparalleled. Hearing that the CD had won a Juno was a delightful surprise, coming at the very end of a project that had already been such fun to work on. And we're very pleased for James."

‘Homage’ is now available as a CD/DVD set on the Onyx label. Tim Martyn can be contacted via www.phoenixaudiollc.com.

 

		James Ehnes recording ‘Homage’ live into Pyramix in April 2007.
		The vintage RCA44 ribbon mic can be seen above his head in the second shot.

About Merging Technologies

Switzerland’s Merging Technologies is the manufacturer of hardware and software systems for audio and video production professionals, including the high-resolution multichannel Pyramix digital audio workstation, VCube non-linear HD video playback system, and the Ramses MSC audio control surface. Merging’s products are used where reliability and the highest possible quality are of paramount concern. Their clients include some of the finest recording studios, broadcast facilities, post-production houses and film dubbing suites in the world.

For Merging information within the US, contact:

Independent Audio Inc
Portland, Maine
t 207-773-2424
f 207 773-2422
e dennis@independentaudio.com 
w www.merging.com