McIver Recording has been supplying quality recordings since 1971. We have satisfied clients from Massachusetts to Michigan and Maine to Virginia.
We offer products and services designed primarily for music educators. Our portfolio includes local, district, state and regional schools, colleges, churches and professional groups. Our expertise in location recording, audio mastering, video production, full color printing and direct distribution allows us to provide outstanding quality to our clients. From our recording or yours, McIver Recording can provide you with the very best quality and fast turn around. Live concert, festival, session or duplication, contact us for more information.
Every room, from Concert Hall to gymnasium, influences the recording. Mastering is the process of improving the recording by addressing the abnormalities that occur in the concert space. Our mastering suite is a near perfect listening space with a multitude of tools used to sweeten the sound. Sweetening is accomplished in both analog and digital domains using numerous outboard gear.
We do concert video better because we know how to get great sound on a disc. Tired of a view with inaudible sound? Want to see the performers up close and personal? We give you the great view with exceptional sound!
Our overall philosophy is simple: quality first. Everything else will follow.
Foundational Fidelity
Our recording philosophy is based on foundational fidelity. Foundational Fidelity is the capture of performance at the highest quality level available.
There are many levels of audio fidelity. Fidelity of the most common format in popular use has been declining since the late 1970s. Vinyl was always the highest level of recorded quality (open reel tape is probably better, but not easily available to the consumer). Cassette tapes were not as good (particularly high speed duplicates) as LP records. Compact discs (CDs) are yet another loss of fidelity. And MP3 files have the lowest fidelity of all.
The original digital format was compact disc (CD), which uses a sample rate of 44.1 kHz and a word length of 16 bits. As digital technology advanced, larger formats became available. While not in common use, 96K and 192K sample rates with 24 bit word lengths are widely supported in recording and audio editing systems. Evolving digital converters also bring better fidelity. McIver Recording has always invested in the latest, highest quality technology.
Why is the best possible recording desired? When the master recording has better fidelity, the lower sample rates (CDs and MP3s) sound much better in comparison to recordings made at low sample rates. If it starts out better, it finishes better.
In addition, there may be future interest in better recordings than CDs (and therefore much better than MP3s) can provide. If the master recording is no better than CD sample rate, it cannot be made to sound any better. Having a master recording that was down sampled for today’s consumer will allow for these contemporary performances to be enjoyed at high resolution when desired in the future.