What is a Re-performance®?

Author Kevin Bazzana refers to our process as a “live realization of the original interpretation.” Zenph® Studios takes audio recordings and turns them back into live performances, precisely replicating what was originally recorded. Our software-based process extracts every musical nuance of a recorded performance, and stores the data in a high-resolution digital file. These re-performance files, represented in a computer as MIDI files, contain every detail of how every note in the composition was played, including pedal actions, volume, and articulations – all with millisecond timings.

These re-performance files can then be played back on a real acoustic piano fitted with sophisticated computers and hardware, letting the listener “sit in the room” as if he or she were there when the original recording was made. Most importantly, the re-performance can be recorded afresh, using the latest microphones and recording techniques, to modernize monophonic or poor-quality recordings of beloved performances.

Click here to read about our new state-of-the-art recordings of Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations re-performance. The Sony BMG team deems it "a sonic rediscovery of an iconic twentieth-century recording."

Important to this process is the use of high-resolution data. Those familiar with the MIDI specification (now more than 25 years old) may know that regular MIDI isn’t really sufficient for capturing and replicating fine nuance. It’s like the difference between regular TV and high-definition TV. The high-resolution MIDI specs we’re using offer 10 bits of data for every key press and release (compared to 7 bits in regular MIDI), as well as extra information about the key and pedal positioning.

We feel the word “re-performance” summarizes this technique perfectly.

Original Performance, New Recording!