A live concert enjoyed half-way around the world!

With the outbreak of Covid, a lot of us have had to embrace video conferencing and streaming platforms for our work. Our global arts community has been severely impacted by the closure of live music venues and some have established small broadcast ventures on several media streaming sites like Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, etc. In terms of visuals these platforms are OK. In terms of sonics they are also OK (read long slow pause on the O and the K!).
You got to make lemonade if you got lemons……

So when we got word of an event by Rudy Van Gelder studios in the US (New Jersey area) of a live jazz band streamed at high res, we thought the $15 USD price was worth a punt.
How good could it get for $15 bucks?
How good would it sound on a “million dollar” system?

So we put the word out to our community and within a day we had the event locked in.

As most jazz nights go they start around 8pm but the band may not show until 10pm and they’ll play a set till late. A few rounds of drinks and light refreshments and you leave happier and poorer from when you first walked through the front door ;-)

So we plugged in from Melbourne direct to New York and started the countdown clock to 10pm when “the band” would come on. A group of twelve serious audiophiles entered the sonic palace of Nirvana Sound and were comfortably seated in the Spitfire chairs facing the system. There was palpable expectation in the air!
The X1 Carbon Laptop was connected via a hand built silver USB to a Ypsilon DAC1000SE. Stage III Concepts cables connected the Ypsilon PST100SE preamp to the Hyperion power amps and the Wilson Benesch Eminence speakers.

We played a mix of Blue Notes on Vinyl to prepare for the evening’s live band. A Dohmann Helix One table with a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum on a Schroder CB9. This was a nice support act to the live session as the same recording space was used from the 50s and 60s on the vinyl and Van Gelder’s magic was bottled in plastic. We discussed that the live stream from the RVG studios was a first and that we had no idea what the sound of the stream would be like.

At precisely 10pm local time the screen opened up on the laptop. We had the lights down low and no visuals on a big projector to distract the ears. It was like closing your eyes at a concert so you could “hear more”. It was as if a doorway into the studio opened up before us. The Van Gelder team know how to mike up a room and the sound was immediately recognisable.

There was a complete absence of compression artefacts that you often get on recorded media and the vocal introduction to the band was like the artist was standing before us in a glorious 3D hologram. Who was playing? Some experienced and well known Jazz luminaries and a younger pianist who was talented enough to join the band and earn his place among multi-generational legends.

The tribute was to Hank Mobley – Blue Note legend.

The band was in the same room and if one could have had a record cutting machine going, a sensational direct to disc record would have been the result. For one and a half hours we experienced top notch world class jazz musicians playing in our “club” for $15 dollars (plus equipment and some fine liquid from Sullivan’s Cove Distillery).

The sonic hologram was entire and complete. Speed, power, punch, timbre, tone, spaciousness and more. An audiophile’s dream of sonic pleasure taken to new heights. It was the live nuances that came through so life like. We could hear the room they were playing in as well as the music. We were stunned by the quality. Literally nobody was expecting it to be so good.

Ever wondered what a piano sounds like in your lounge room? Buy one and get a world class pianist to come over and play it for you. A Steinway Concert D (Hamburg) is similar to the price of the loudspeakers we used to accurately render the size of the instrument. Thankfully we didn’t have to schlep the Steinway in but instead used modern methods to deliver the sonic package intact across the Lucents, Jupiters and Ciscos of the IT world.

Rudy Van Gelder handed down a legacy in music and art. His studio is still active and run by professionals who worked directly with him. They still deliver the goods from the studio mikes to the media doorstep!

I think the chance to hear live music in the safety and comfort of your home is finally here for serious audiophiles and music lovers. I wouldn’t have wanted for anything more. Good friends, great refreshments, amazing acoustics in the room, easy parking, quick trip home, and a world class band playing.

For once a live stream where audio was not the ‘second fiddle’. Videonauts could have added a big screen and all the enjoyment that can bring, but that night the audionauts had already left on the Rudy Van Gelder express to Nirvana.

PS. We are looking forward to the next event planned from Van Gelder Live. We gave some high praise to the guys for a special night and they were delighted we had enjoyed the evening.

From: Phil (Van Gelder Live) Nov 17, 2020, 15:13 UTC

“Hi Mark, thank you for your note & kind words, it means a lot to the team involved! The equipment you link us to is absolutely incredible, wow. I’m so pleased to know someone with your background and experience enjoyed the presentation. The big-bad cloud of the Internet is not always a friend, as you know. We expect to continue in 2021 and hope you will join us again from Australia!
Warmest regards, Phil Coady, RVG Producer.”

To that we say – Bring on 2021 !!
Time for the new world to meet the old and shake things up!!

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