Svensson Plays Bach was recorded at the Nybrokajen 11 Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, August 10, 11 and 12, 2001. It was produced by David G. Christensen of Seattle, Washington USA. Christensen focuses on classical solo and small ensemble production.

    Nybrokajen Concert Hall is a very popular European recording venue. It is a 700 seat hall with a wrap around balcony. The moderate dimensional decorations and shape of the hall provide excellent sound splaying. The hall has about a 2.2 second reverberation time.

    The piano in Nybrokajen Hall is a Steinway D and had gone through it’s annual refurbishing just prior to the recording. A special "long stick" was used to improve the radiation of the sound.

    The recording was made using two Earthworks matched QTC1 microphones. These microphones are omni directional (picking up sound in a 360 degree pattern) and were spaced approximately 33cm apart. This use of omni microphones in a spaced pair configuration gives the wonderful balance between an intimate piano sound and the wonderful sound of the Nybrokajen Hall. Noise level in the hall was down over 60 decibels except when the ferry boat was docking, at which time recording had to be suspended.

     High resolution 24 bit technology was used to maximize sound quality and dynamic range. This technology adds over 30 decibels of dynamic range versus the commercial CD standards, giving much more latitude in recording and providing a better defined signal for signal processing. The entire post production and mastering process was done with the 24 bit recordings, and only at the last step was the signal processed down to the current commercial (redbook) 16 bit CD standards. No signal processing was done at the 16 bit level.

    As is usually the case with classical recording, a minimum amount of signal processing was used in preparing the recordings for CD duplication. Some equalization was used, shelving EQ at plus 2 dB below 240Hz and about 2 dB attenuation around 350 with a wide Q setting. High triangular dither with high-pass contour noise shaping was used to convert the 24 bit signal to 16 bid for the CD master. No other signal processing was used.

–  David G. Christensen