BPC Recording

The Pianos
The two Steinway 9-foot concert grand pianos from the 1920's have retained their grandeur over time (both were selected as Concert & Artist instruments -- serial numbers 213182 & 226857). One was restored at the Steinway Restoration Center in New York; the other restored privately by one of the best Steinway technicians in the country. (This piano was at the Manhattan School of Music in NYC for many years -- Rachmaninoff performed on this instrument many times during it's residency there).

The Recording Equipment - doing more with less

The Microphones
A pair of vintage Neumann U-87 microphones are the ideal choice for piano, strings, instrumental and chamber recordings. Probably the best known and the most widely used studio microphones, they have large, dual-diaphragm capsules. This particular pair of microphones have been magnificently modified by Stephen Paul Audio -- reducing the microphone capsule's thickness from Neumann's original 3 microns to a mere 1.5 microns (the average human hair is 100 microns thick). The result is a dynamic range that is simply amazing. A second pair of large-diaphragm Advanced Audio mods beautifully round out the microphone collection.

The PXW-X70 4K Camera
Capable of recording in 4K and in full HD (1920 x 1080), the PXW-X70 features a 1.0" type Exmor R CMOS Sensor with a resolution of 20 megapixels. With an Optical 12x ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T lens, it is highly sensitive and records at high resolution suitable for broadcast.

Final recordings are produced and rendered at 1920 x 1080 as an .mp4 file. Other formats are available depending on the application requirements of the sponsors.

The Microphone Pre-Amplifier

The John Hardy M-1 Mic Preamp is among the finest mic preamps in the world. It provides the accuracy and transparency that is missing in other mic preamps. No matter what your application, the M-1 provides superior sound quality. The world's best input transformer (Jensen JT-16-B), best op-amp (990 discrete op-amp) and the elimination of all capacitors from the signal path all combine to provide the cleanest signal possible.

The Audio Interface: RME
The German company RME presents the world's most versatile PCI Express audio interface - the HDSPe AIO. The advanced Input-Output interface shines with the latest 192kHz AD- and DA-converters, with more than 112dB signal to noise ratio. Total Mix, the unsurpassed flexible routing mixer and SteadyClock, RME's sensational clock technology are also on board. This is a professional "soundcard" and it's at BPC Recording Studio to create its signature sound.

Rain "Element" X2 (Audio)
The Rain Element X2 is the ultimate workstation when it comes to audio video production. With its two 3.3GHz Intel "Westmere" Xeon 6-Core processors [12MB cache] and the NVIDIA Quadro Video Card, there is more than enough power under the hood to superbly handle any recording project at the studio. The Digital Audio Workstation utilizes server technology with the Windows 10 (64-bit) operating system, providing outstanding software flexibility for your final project, including the option of recording at the highest quality possible (24-bit/192kHz).

Asus Desktop (Video)
Our newly assembled desktop serves exclusively as our video workstation. With the top of the line, Asus Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard with 64GB of G.Skill Trident Z Royal RAM, an AMD CPR Ryzen 9 3950X, (16 Core, 32 Thread Processor with a 3.5 GHz Base), an NVIDIA Titan RTX 24GB video card, a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 and 2TB Sabrent Rocket Q4 NVMe 4.0 SSD drives, this computer has the ability to tackle any video project.

The Audio and Video Software: Only Industry Standards!
For Audio Recording and Mastering: MAGIX--Sequoia 13
Plug-in Bundles: In addition to the plug-ins within Sequoia 13, Waves (Mercury & API Collection), Lexicon--PCM Native Total Bundle
Solid State Logic (4000 Collection & Duende), Sonnox (Oxford Elite), iZotope--RX7 Restoration Suite
For Video & Graphics: Adobe -- Premiere Pro CC, Media Encoder CC, and Photoshop CC