对话雅鲁唱片创始人 – Bob Attiyeh
AcMaverick 索尼精选高解析度音乐2017-10-27点击阅读原文了解更多详情
—索尼精选独家访问—
雅鲁唱片创始人、音乐制作人
Bob Attiyeh“
“成为发烧友，意味着喜爱各种类型的音乐” – Bob Attiyeh”
Bob Attiyeh
click here for English Translation
索尼精选：雅鲁唱片的音乐品味广受好评。你们如何选择合作的音乐家？你们更喜欢什么样的音乐？
Bob：幸运的是，在雅鲁，我们有一些朋友和顾问帮我们寻找和评估有才华的音乐家，而且我们定期收到来自世界各地的音乐家的合作邀请。雅鲁绝大多数的唱片是在洛杉矶录制的，不过我们的团队规模小，可以去世界上任何一个地方进行录制。我们的模拟磁带录音机（由SonoruS Audio制作）和高解析度数字平台（由瑞士的Merging Technologies制作）可以在全球任何一种电压环境中工作。
触动我们的音乐如此之多。我觉得最重要的是心理上的因素，而非严格意义上的音乐性如何。换句话说，最让我满足的音乐，是讲一个好的故事，而且把它讲好。不一定要是像诗歌或者小说那样有叙事性的故事，而是传递了情感体验的故事。如果音乐告诉我一个好故事，我就享受它，无论它是什么类型，古典、浪漫、文艺复兴、爵士、流行、世界音乐都可以。
索尼精选：雅鲁唱片的音乐品味广受好评。你们如何选择合作的音乐家？你们更喜欢什么样的音乐？
Bob：我们对新发行的爵士钢琴唱片引以为豪，那是去年三月与现象级青年爵士钢琴家Yuko Mabuchi和她的三重奏乐队合作录制的，现在刚刚发行。Yuko不仅是一位富有经验和才能的钢琴家（她的手指在键盘上好似闪电，她敏感的音乐性拨动我们能的心弦），而且年轻美丽的她还是一位不错的作曲家。她的作品，以及爵士乐即兴，听上去清新而诱人，对世界各地的听众而言都是很容易亲近的。Yuko生于日本，常在亚洲演出，一年半前刚刚搬到美国。有她在加州，我们很幸运！
Yuko Mabuchi与Bob Breton在Cammilleri音乐厅录音
Bob：既然你问特别的录音体验，我得提那张和大都会歌剧院女中音歌唱家Sasha Cooke，以及科尔本(Colburn)音乐学校管弦乐团合作的，在科尔本音乐学校的Zipper音乐厅录制的唱片。Sasha和乐团的声音如此美丽，把人包裹在其中，我必须时刻提醒自己这不是个梦。我们把专辑命名为If You Love for Beauty（《若你慕色而恋》），这是马勒的吕克特歌谣的一首。除了马勒，Sasha还演唱了亨德尔、肖松和John Adams的歌曲。这张专辑是我的最爱之一，索尼在中国进行发布。刚过去的这个夏天，Sasha在Mason Bates新创作的关于乔布斯的歌剧中演出，她的声音听起来和录制本专辑时一样清新可人。
专辑：If You Love for Beauty
索尼精选Hi-Res音乐 热卖中
在科尔本音乐学校的Zipper音乐厅与女中音歌唱家Sasha Cooke、科尔本管弦乐团录音
索尼精选：您曾说自己是一名“声场”(soundstage)狂。能不能为我们解释一下这个概念？比如雅鲁的专辑Smoke & Mirrors Percussion Ensemble是如何体现的？
Bob：我一直挺喜欢讨论录音中的“声场”。听一张具有好声场的唱片，能把我传送到音乐会现场。我们谈论声场的时候，就是在说当你用扬声器听唱片时，播放出来的乐器和人声，听上去好像乐手就站或坐在你面前。当你坐在家里，把两个扬声器放到恰当的位置，一张好的唱片能让你觉得你坐在一群专门为你演奏的音乐家正前方。
如果你听的是管弦乐团和声乐家的录音，比如刚刚讲的Sasha Cooke的那张，你会听到第一小提琴靠左边，Sasha在中间，第二小提琴和低音提琴更靠右边。听一张理想的唱片时，使用精心设计的音响系统，并且扬声器正确摆放，我们称为“成像”，这样出来的声场就是精确的。你既听到乐队的整体音响，还听到在舞台上扇形排列的每一位坐着或者站着的乐手都在为你演奏。精确的声场，是一张唱片给人现场感的重要因素。
专辑：Smoke and Mirrors Percussion Ensemble
索尼精选Hi-Res音乐 热卖中
Bob：Smoke & Mirrors Percussion Ensemble这张唱片（也是在科尔本音乐学校的Zipper音乐厅录制的）就体现了丰富而精确的声场。你能辨别乐手和乐器的准确方位，在音乐厅中从左到右、从前到后的分布。感兴趣的朋友可以从我们的网站yarlungrecords.com/sonorus/下载测试音频，了解更多关于声场的知识，以及如何放置扬声器。
其中的“环绕音效测试”能帮你精确地放置扬声器，也可以给SonoruS全息影像进行测试。我每次都用这个来给新房间放置扬声器。这些下载都是免费的。
索尼精选：
您平常都用什么设备听音乐？
Bob：我们很幸运，在雅鲁有许多很棒的聆听方式，在工作和休闲中都是。对大部分高解析度音频，我们用Merging Technologies的NADAC，和一台exaSound进行播放。SonoruS ATR10磁带机用来放模拟磁带，Well Tempered Lab和Linn Sondek的唱盘来播黑胶唱片。我们主要的前置放大器是Elliot Midwood制作的Messenger与Arian Jansen制作的SonoruS。我们的固态功放是Gary Koh的Genesis Advanced Technologies的产品，立体声扬声器是由Dali与Genesis制造的。
索尼精选：
您最喜欢的室内乐录音场所？
Bob：科尔本学校的Zipper音乐厅，南加州大学大脑与创造研究所的Cammilleri厅，迪士尼音乐厅，The Broad Stage，和Segerstrom艺术中心的Samueli剧场，这些是我们录制室内乐的最佳场所。我们也和更大的乐团在其他超棒的音乐厅合作过。
索尼精选：您有没有用过索尼的音频产品？使用体验如何？
Bob：的确有，我是索尼的粉丝。我们用一台索尼的DVD播放机，连接一台市面上罕见的丹麦制造的LA Audio数模转换器，来听CD。那声音很棒，索尼的传输非常可靠，噪音极小，我非常满意。另外，我们使用Tascam录音笔来录制高解析度的PCM文件。这支Tascam其实是索尼制造的！我们还有索尼车载CD机，音响效果超级好。
索尼精选：发烧友是什么样的一群人？您认为高解析度（Hi-Res）音乐是否只会在发烧圈传播？
Bob：随着硬盘存储成本降低、带宽的增加和网络传输变得更快更便宜,我的直觉告诉我,喜爱音乐的人会逐渐放弃低解析度的文件(如mp3),只听高解析度音频，不管是从索尼精选购买，还是流媒体播放。一旦喜欢音乐的人听到做工精良的Hi-Res音频,他们往往不会回到高压缩音频,即使是用便携式设备来听音乐。iPhone、HTC手机和三星手机都可以轻松地播放高解析度音频，即使在便携式设备上，高解析度音乐也能明显地显示出优势。或许对重金属和各类摇滚乐而言并非如此，我对那块市场不太了解。我猜测如果摇滚乐唱片以高解析度录制的话，用Hi-Res音频播放器来音效会好得多。
Bob：你问发烧友是什么样的，我从很个人的角度来回答吧。有些人享受昂贵的音响设备多于享受音乐，有些人最感兴趣的是设备的外观、重量和价格。尽管重量、外观对营销而言很重要，但一件产品的重量并不代表着它的质量，外观也不代表它播放出来的音质。诚然，我们喜欢音乐成为审美体验的一部分，所以如果音响设备听上去不错，看上去也像美丽的艺术品，那当然很好。
Robert Gupta使用曾属于Nathan Milstein的斯特拉迪瓦里小提琴在迪士尼音乐厅录音。左二为Bob。
Bob：对我而言，英文中的audiophile指“声音爱好者”，或者在我们的语境下，“音乐爱好者”。“audio”来自拉丁语，更精确地说是动词“Audire”（听）；“phile”来自古希腊语，意思是“爱”，或者“珍惜” (φιλέω)。作为雅鲁的制作人和录音工程师，我希望雅鲁的唱片听上去如透亮的明窗，让听者尽可能直接地、不受干扰地感受音乐家的表演。有人告诉我雅鲁有它自己的独特声音，不过我自己并未发觉，也很难描述。人们提到的特质有“透明的”（这让我开心，想想我们的明窗比喻）、充满细节的和精确的声场（像我们上文讨论过的），丰富而紧致的低音，以及富有延展性的、自然的高音。当我觉得一张唱片听上去就像我在音乐厅或者录音时听到的那样，我就很开心。我想要呈现的音乐，是没有人为地添加个性化效果的，但又具有吸引力的。所以对我来说，成为发烧友，意味着做一个喜爱各种类型音乐的人，每年听很多音乐会，尽可能让我们的唱片听上去和现场音乐会一样。
索尼精选：
雅鲁接下来的唱片计划有哪些？
Bob：接下来要发行的是我们的首张合唱作品专辑。乐队由32名合唱队员组成，没有乐器伴奏，指挥是颇富天赋的新秀Robert Istad。Istad博士与我还将筹划未来的唱片录制。这张合唱专辑包括欧洲、俄罗斯和美国的宗教音乐。
我们还打算在2018年初发行一张钢琴独奏专辑，以及与雅鲁的巨星Antonio Lysy合作录制一张南美音乐专辑，他刚刚凭借个人专辑Antonio Lysy at The Broad: Music from Argentina为雅鲁摘得了首个格莱美奖。这张新专辑，打算命名为《南美洲》，将包括Piazzolla和Villa Lobos的音乐。
我们将与Yuko Mabuchi和她的四重奏乐队合作第二张爵士乐唱片，另外还要给Miles Davis作品音乐会进行现场录音。我们会很忙的！
索尼精选：您之前来过中国吗？索尼精选是将雅鲁Hi-Res唱片介绍给中国音乐市场的首家音乐服务商，有什么想和我们的用户说的吗？
Bob：我很幸运地来过中国几次，不仅是中心区域，而且还看到了少数民族地区的许多神奇的事物。中国的博大和文化多样性让每个有机会到访的人都惊叹不已，我感觉真的很幸运。我期待不久后回中国看看。
Bob：对索尼精选的用户们，我想说：感谢你们对中国高解析度音乐的支持。中国有一些世界上最好的音乐人，创作了这个星球上最有趣、最令人满意的音乐。很高兴知悉中国的爱乐者们有机会从索尼精选听到各厂牌最高解析度的音乐。感谢你们让好音乐继续生存及蓬勃发展。因为你们，世界变得更好。
感动时刻 “音”为有你
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Sony Interview in English
Sony HD Beijing interviewed Bob Attiyeh in October, 2017 about Yarlung’s high resolution albums, Yarlung’s mission with musicians, recent and upcoming releases and audiophile techniques.
Sony HD: There are plenty of favorable comments on Yarlung’s taste for programs. How do you select musicians that you want to work with? What features of music do you appreciate?
Bob: We are lucky at Yarlung Records. We have friends and advisors who help us look for and evaluate talented musicians, and we receive requests on a regular basis to make recordings with musicians from around the world. We make most of our recordings in Los Angeles, but we are a small team and can travel anywhere in the world to make recordings. Our analog tape recorders (made by SonoruS Audio) and our high resolution digital platform (made by Merging Technologies in Switzerland) can operate on any electrical current in the world.
Music touches us on so many levels. I think the most important element is a psychological one, rather than a strictly musical one. In other words, musical performances that are the most satisfying for me tell a good story and tell it well. This story does not have to be a narrative like a poem or a novel, but a story nonetheless, which conveys an emotional journey. If music tells me a good story, I tend to enjoy it, no matter what type of music it is, whether classical, romantic, Renaissance, jazz, pop or world music.
Sony HD: Recommend us some of Yarlung’s recent ones. And are there any unusual recording experiences that you recall?
We are extremely proud of our most recent release, with the young jazz pianist phenomenon Yuko Mabuchi and her trio. We recorded this album last March, and it has just been released. Not only is Yuko sophisticated and talented as a musician (her fingers look like lightning on the piano keyboard and her musical sensitivity pulls at our heart strings) but she is young, pretty, and a great composer. Her original compositions and improvisations on jazz standards are fresh and inviting, and accessible to listeners from all around the world. Yuko was born in Japan, has performed often in Asia, and moved fulltime to the United States about a year and a half ago. We are lucky to have her in California!
Since you ask about special recording experiences, I have to mention the album we made with Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and Colburn Orchestra in Zipper Concert Hall at The Colburn School. Sasha’s sound, and that of the orchestra, was so enveloping and beautiful that I had to keep reminding myself this was not a dream. We titled the album If You Love for Beauty, after a song in Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. In addition to the Mahler, Sasha sang Handel, Chausson and John Adams. This album remains among my favorites of all time, and Sony distributes this in China as well. We heard Sasha sing in the new opera about Steve Jobs composed by Mason Bates this past summer and she sounded just as fresh and beautiful as she sounded when we made this recording.
Sony HD: You once said you are a soundstage junkie. Can you illustrate ‘soundstaging’ a little bit for beginners? For example, how it is presented in Smoke & Mirrors Percussion Ensemble?
I am always happy to talk about soundstage in recordings. Listening to recordings with a good soundstage transports me to the live musical event. When we talk about soundstage, we are talking about where instruments and musicians sound as if they are sitting or standing when you are listening to a recording through speakers. If you are sitting in a room in your home, for example, and you have two speakers properly set up, a good recording will make you think you are sitting in front of musicians performing for you. If you are listening to an orchestra with singer, for example, like the Sasha Cooke album we discussed earlier, you will hear the first violin section more to the left, you will hear Sasha Cooke in the center, and you will hear the second violins and bass section more to the right. In an ideal recording, listening on a sound system that is well designed with the speakers correctly positioned, this “imaging” as we call it, this soundstage, will be precise. You will hear the orchestra as a whole, but you will also hear individual musicians fanning out across the stage playing for you in the sitting or standing positions where they were during the recording itself. Accurate stoundstage is a big part of what gives a recording the feeling of being live music.
The Smoke and Mirrors percussion ensemble recordings (also recorded in Zipper Hall at The Colburn School) are examples of rich and accurate soundstage. One can hear the precise location of our musicians and their instruments, from left to right and from front to back in the concert hall. People interested in learning more about soundstage and how to set up speakers can use our test files available at yarlungrecords.com/sonorus/
The circling tones test enables accurate speaker placement and also works as a test for SonoruS Holographic Imaging. I use these circling tones every time I set up speakers in a new room. There is no charge for these downloads.
Sony HD: What devices do you usually choose to listen to music?
We are fortunate to have a number of wonderful ways to listen to music at Yarlung, both when we are working and for pleasure. We use a NADAC by Merging Technologies and an exaSound for most of our high resolution digital playback, the SonoruS ATR10 tape player for analog tape, and Well Tempered Lab and Linn Sondek turntables for vinyl LPs. Our main preamplifier is a Messenger, by Elliot Midwood. Our vacuum tube mono block power amplifiers are Messenger, by Elliot Midwood, and SonoruS, by Arian Jansen. Our solid state amplification is from Genesis Advanced Technologies, by Gary Koh. Our main sets of stereo speakers are made by Dali and Genesis.
Sony HD: Tell us about your favorite venue for recording chamber music.
Zipper Hall at The Colburn School, Cammilleri Hall at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Broad Stage and Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts have been among our most successful concert halls for chamber music. We have worked in other wonderful concert halls for larger ensembles as well.
Sony HD: Have you ever used Sony’s audio products? How was the experience like?
Yes indeed. I am a Sony fan. We use a stock Sony DVD player connected to a rather rare LA Audio digital to analog converter made in Denmark for listening to CDs. The sound is wonderful and the Sony transport is reliable and quiet. I’m very happy with it. We also use a Tascam recorder for recording high resolution PCM files. This Tascam happens to be made by Sony! We also have an excellent Sony CD player in the car, which sounds fabulous.
Sony HD: What is it like being an audiophile? Do you think if high resolution (Hi-Res) music will only spread limitedly among audiophiles?
As hard drive storage costs decrease and as bandwidth increases and internet speeds continue to become faster and less expensive, my instincts tell me that people who care about music will gradually abandon the lower resolution files (such as MP3s) and listen only to high resolution files, either files that they buy from digital service providers like Sony Select in China, or files that they stream as part of a service. Once people who like music hear well-made high resolution files, they tend never to return to highly compressed music files, even when they are listening to music on a portable device. Basic iPhones, all HTC phones, Samsung and others all play high resolution digital music files just as easily as they play MP3 files. Even on portable devices, good music sounds better in high resolution. This may not be true in heavy metal and various types of Rock and Roll, but I don’t know much about that market. My suspicion is that if a Rock and Roll album was recorded in high resolution, it will sound much better in high resolution.
When you ask what it is like being an audiophile, I will answer from a very personal perspective. Some audiophiles enjoy their expensive audio equipment more than they enjoy the music this equipment plays for them. Some audiophiles are most interested in how their equipment looks and how heavy it is, or how much they paid for it. While weight and appearance are important for marketing, the weight of a piece of equipment is not always an indicator of the quality of that equipment. And it is absolutely true that the appearance of a piece of equipment has no bearing on the quality of sound it produces. Naturally, we like music to be part of an overall aesthetic experience, so it is nice if audio equipment sounds good and looks like beautiful pieces of art.
For me, the English word audiophile means “lover of sound,” or in our case, “lover of music” coming from the Latin word for “audio,” or more precisely the verb “to listen” (audire), and from the Ancient Greek verb meaning “to love,” or “to treasure” (φιλέω). As a producer and recording engineer for Yarlung Records, I want the Yarlung sound to be like a clean window, allowing the viewer (or listener) to experience the performance of the musicians as directly as possible, without interference. I have been told that there is a specific Yarlung sound, though I don’t hear this myself and I have trouble describing it. People talk about transparency (which makes me happy, thinking back to our clean window analogy), detailed and accurate soundstage (which we discussed before), rich and tight bass and extended but natural-sounding treble. When I am happy with one of our recordings I think it sounds like what I hear in the concert or recording session. I want to present music without a distinctive added flavor, but attractively presented. So for me, being an audiophile means being a lover of music in many styles, attending many live concerts every year, and making our recordings sound as much like live concerts as we can.
Sony HD: What are the next recording plans of Yarlung?
Coming up next is the release of our first large-scale choral album. This is a chorus of 32 singers, without instrumental accompaniment, conducted by the young and very talented Robert Istad. Dr. Istad and I plan other recording projects together in the future as well. This first choral recording includes sacred music from Europe, Russia and the United States. We also have plans to release a solo piano album in early 2018, and another recording celebrating the music of South America with Yarlung super-star Antonio Lysy, who won Yarlung’s first Grammy Award for his album Antonio Lysy at The Broad: Music from Argentina. This new album, tentatively titled South America, includes music by Piazzolla and Villa Lobos. We have plans for a second jazz album featuring Yuko Mabuchi, performing with her quartet this time, which we will record next year in a live concert celebrating the music of Miles Davis. We are going to be busy!
Sony HD: Have you ever been to China before? As we (sonyselect) are the very first music service to introduce Yarlung’s Hi-Res catalogues to China music market, do you have any words want to share with our user?
I have had the good fortune to travel to China several times, not only in the heartland of China, but to see some of the many wonders in areas inhabited by ethnic minority group. The richness and cultural diversity in China impresses everyone who has the opportunity to visit China, and I feel lucky indeed. I look forward to returning to China again before too long.
To Sony Select patrons, I would like to conclude with this: Thank you for your support of quality high resolution music in China. China produces some of the finest musicians in the world, and has written some of the most interesting and satisfying music on our planet. It makes me happy to know that Chinese music connoisseurs have the opportunity to hear the highest resolutions possible in recorded music in partnership with Sony Select and the labels Sony curates and brings to your homes. Thank you for keeping great music alive and thriving. The world is a better place because of you.
Thank you very much for our conversation. And thank you, Sony Select, for the important work you are doing for Chinese people.
–Bob Attiyeh
Producer
Yarlung Records