Known worldwide as one of the purest acoustic direct DSD recordings the acoustic trio session began and ended on the same morning in the La Honda Hills above Hwy 1 (San Gregorio). This 4 hour session captured the sounds of 2 acoustic guitars and voices and an upright bass being played and sang within arm’s length of the 3 musicians standing in a close circle.

The trademark minimal microphone approach taken by Elias in his previous SACDs was repeated here with microphones for each instrument and vocal. In addition, microphones in the ceiling and back walls were, as with “The Window” and “Crossing” used to capture the natural reverberation and ambient characteristics of the recording space. Only these tracks were used in the Pure DSD mix on the Sonoma workstation, avoiding all compression and outboard or digital effects. There are no overdubs or edits in these mixes.

This collection of original material from the independent acoustic singer-songwriter David Elias is a special organic, natural sounding set of pure DSD recordings created at the Slipperworld Studios in La Honda, California (www.slipperworld.net). These 14 tracks feature David Elias (acoustic/vocal/harmonica), Charlie Natzke (acoustic/vocal) and Chris Kee (upright bass, Blue Coast Records).

This Acoustic Trio session release was captured in the studio on a single day as a series of live takes without any edits or overdubs. It was recorded by Charlie Natzke to no more than 8 tracks directly to a Sonoma DSD Workstation using Meitner converters.

The essence of the performance is the ambient and acoustic nature of all the instruments and vocals including natural resonance, harmonics, decay, and microphone bleed and decay using minimal micing without any artificial or digital effects.

Acoustic Trio DSD Sessions was recorded on a sunny day among the redwoods with the windows open. The musicians recorded standing roughly arms length from each other in a small circle with no isolation. A pair of microphones were positioned overhead to capture a stereophonic image of “the room”. This was used as the only source of natural reverb in the mix.

The songs were mixed as DSD using a Sony mixer card in the Sonoma workstation. These tracks have never left the original DSD format, even as analog conversions for mixing!

As a result, what you hear from these pure DSD master recordings are the natural live performances of the trio, as if you were standing or sitting with them in the studio during the session.

David Elias is a DSD and SACD pioneer. He self-produced the world’s first hybrid 5.1 SACD “The Window” in 2002 and released it in 2003. It was a final nominee in the Surround Music Awards in Beverly Hills that year. His next stereo and 5.1 surround sound acoustic live session production “Crossing” had 3 final nominations at SMA in Beverly Hills including “Listener’s Choice” and “Best Non-Orchestral Surround Mix”. Stereophile magazine called this one “Extraordinary”.

The songs on the “Acoustic Trio: DSD Sessions” disc are just as extraordinary. Perhaps more so since they are the live session tracks of a very simple trio consisting of 2 acoustic guitars, 2 voices and an upright bass. The beauty of acoustic is revealed in this elemental setting where the musicians just played and were recorded by the industry’s state-of-the-art high resolution DSD workstation (Sonoma). The way to listen to honest music is with an honest recording. This is it…

David Elias – Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Charlie Natzke – Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Chris Kee – Upright Bass