Sound Liaison

09/12/2025

What continually inspires me is how a one-mic recording resembles the experience of attending an unamplified live performance. When you sit in a hall listening to an orchestra or a chamber group, no sound engineer is balancing faders, you’re hearing instruments interacting in space. The blend is organic, dynamic and inherently musical.
Every time I visit the Metropole Orkest during rehearsals (they are located in the same building), I’m struck by how beautiful the ensemble sounds without amplification. In contrast, their live concerts in large venues must be amplified to reach the audience. While the result can be impressive, it is fundamentally different. The electronic system, no matter how advanced, creates a mediated version of the sound.
Compare that with listening to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the 'Main Hall'. There, you experience instruments merging acoustically, and the hall itself becomes part of the ensemble. That natural blend, the way sound waves fill the space and interact with your ears, is something technology still struggles to replicate. Frand de Rond

07/12/2025

The Real Deal:
AI can synthesize melodies, but it can’t create real presence.
Sound Liaison recording sessions capture true music played in real time with true emotion — musicians responding to each other, shaping the moment, breathing in the same space. No overdubs, no edits, no engineering illusions. Just the truth of the performance, preserved with absolute clarity.

Mic .I.

05/12/2025

Most recording sessions are about decisions: microphones, placement, balance, corrections. Every now and then, a session comes along where those decisions seem to make themselves.

Recently, in Studio 2, we recorded a duo session that required remarkably little intervention. Two musicians, David Lukács and Alexander Brott, who know exactly how to listen to each other. One microphone in the room. No overdubs, no safety nets. We simply placed the mic, checked the balance, and pressed record.
What stood out immediately was how naturally the sound settled. Clarinet and guitar found their space without competing. Dynamics shaped themselves. Even in the quietest passages, the focus and control remained intact. Those are the moments where technology steps aside and just documents what happens.

From an engineering point of view, this was one of those rare sessions where the challenge wasn’t to fix problems, but to stay out of the way.

We’re still in the final stages of preparing this recording, so we won’t share details yet. But we wanted to let you know: something very pure and very direct is on its way.

More soon.

Best regards,

Frans de Rond / Sound Liaison

27/11/2025

Part 2 caption: A commitment to authenticity.

One-Mic Recording: Rediscovering the Art of Natural Sound (Part 2)
By Frans de Rond – Engineer at Sound Liaison

With the One-Mic Recording method, Phase issues disappear because there is no multi-mic interference. Bleed isn’t a problem — it is the system. Musicians adjust their distance like a living “mix.”
This approach resembles an unamplified live performance: organic, dynamic and musical. Like hearing the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Main Hall — sound waves blending naturally in the space.
Recording jazz this way is challenging but deeply rewarding. When musicians lock in and the stereo image opens up, the music breathes.
One-mic recording isn’t a shortcut — it’s a commitment to authenticity. Once you experience natural acoustic mixing, it stays with you.



One-mic recording isn’t a shortcut — it’s a commitment to authenticity. Once you experience natural acoustic mixing, it stays with you.

24/11/2025

One-Mic Recording: Rediscovering the Art of Natural Sound (Part 1)
At Sound Liaison, we’ve always been driven by curiosity: about space, music, and the emotional truth inside a performance. Working with the Josephson C700S as a single stereo microphone opened a world of sonic authenticity. Once you hear it, turning back becomes difficult.
Most recordings rely on many microphones, later balanced electronically. But a one-mic recording is different: the instruments blend physically in the air, long before reaching the diaphragm. What you capture is the real acoustic event — powerful, natural and honest.

17/11/2025

At Sound Liaison, our One Mic Recordings are created with a single Josephson C700S stereo microphone, capturing music with exceptional purity, realism, and natural depth. Because this technique relies entirely on one microphone, the complete soundstage must be shaped on the spot. Each instrument is positioned with precision—slightly left or right, closer or farther from the microphone—to achieve perfect balance and a naturally immersive stereo image. Microphone height also plays a crucial role, especially in shaping the low-frequency response through its interaction with the studio floor.

This purist approach results in recordings that deliver the emotional impact of a true live performance. A One Mic Recording offers full phase coherence, precise imaging, and an impressively wide and deep soundstage. It inspires the musicians to interact dynamically, play together as an ensemble, and create music that feels immediate and alive.

It’s real. It’s live. It’s happening now.

Listen to One Mic Recordings by Sound Li on Qobuz.com, the online service for demanding music lovers: 100 million tracks in unlimited high quality streaming.

24/10/2025

Sound Liaison proudly presents:
Carmen Gomes Inc. – Bluesy May
Recorded live around one microphone – straight to DSD
The recording was made live around a single Josephson C700S microphone, captured straight to DSD256. “I love this completely honest way of recording,” Carmen explains. “It’s very challenging, even a small movement changes the sound, but deeply rewarding.” No overdubs, no EQ, no edits: only pure performance, shaped by placement, dynamics, and connection.

The session took place in Studio 2 at MCO, a legendary room that has hosted the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Lester Young, and Oscar Peterson. Preserved in its original state, its natural acoustics provide warmth and clarity, the secret ingredient to the superb sound stage on this recording. Frans shaped the album’s flow by removing applause, creating an unbroken musical arc from beginning to end.

Each track feels like a bead on a thread of time, unique yet connected, by musicians who, more than merely perform, actually become the music.

/soundliaison.com/collections/home-page-collection/products/carmen-gomes-inc-bluesy-may

Experience Bluesy May by Carmen Gomes Inc. - a stunning One Mic DSD recording blending blues, jazz & emotion with pure, analog warmth.

23/10/2025

✨ Erik Verwey Trio & Hermine Deurloo – Live Encounters ✨
Beautifully captured on the high-end label Sound Liaison.
Hermine’s chromatic harmonica and Erik Verwey’s piano merge in perfect harmony — soulful, intimate, and alive.

🎧 Recorded in stunning clarity by Frans de Rond.
📝 Review by Cyriel Pluimakers – Jazzenzo Jazz Magazine

19/10/2025

4 Legends Meet – Experience a Moment of Audiophile History

Live Recording Event | Sunday, October 26 | 16:00 | Studio 1
Scott Hamilton & The Ghost, the King & I featuring the string trio ‘Salon de Musique’

Scott Hamilton is a true living legend and one of the all-time great American tenor saxophone players. His big, warm, golden tone and flawless sense of swing carry on the tradition of the classic jazz masters — in the lineage of Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins.
For this special concert, Scott joins the Dutch trio The Ghost, the King and I, which brings together three of the Netherlands’ most respected jazz musicians:
bassist Frans van Geest (the Ghost), guitarist Vincent Koning (the King), and pianist Rob van Bavel.
The trio has performed extensively across the globe — from Siberia and Japan to the UK, South Korea, and throughout Europe — and has released several acclaimed albums including Trilogy, Live in Seoul, Reverie, The Inventors (with the string section of the Metropole Orchestra), and their most recent release, The Music of George Gershwin.
Adding a touch of elegance, the string trio ‘Salon de Musique’ travels all the way from South Korea to perform a selection of beautiful ballads with the group.
A rare meeting of musical legends — and a unique opportunity to experience a moment of audiophile history being created live.
This extraordinary concert will be captured in stunning detail by Sound Liaison — the award-winning recording team of Frans de Rond and Peter Bjørnild , renowned for their natural, lifelike sound and masterful recording technique.

Scott Hamilton – tenor saxophone
Rob van Bavel – piano
Vincent Koning – guitar
Frans van Geest – double bass
Salon de Musique – string

https://www.heuvellaan.com/concert/the-ghost-the-king-i-ft-scott-hamilton-strijktrio-korea/

17/10/2025

The Ghost, the King & I ft. Scott Hamilton, strijktrio ‘Salon de Musique’ Rob van Bavel – PianoVincent Koning – gitaarFrans van Geest – contrabasScott Hamilton – tenorsaxofoonSalon de Musique – strijktrio Het trio ‘The Ghost, the King and I’ werd in 2008 opgericht naar aanleiding v...

17/10/2025

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗰𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲" 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗹.

🎧 Superb review in Positive Feedback USA by R. Paul:

When two outstanding musicians who understand and respect each other so well, and one superb master of audio recording, and a single microphone come together, absolute magic is the result. That's what we have in this new album from Tim Langedijk and Paul Berner, with the incomparable Frans de Rond. Add to this ensemble a great natural acoustic space, a single Josephson C700S microphone, and some great music selections, and you'll find me a very happy camper just listening to the tunes.

As producer Peter Bjørnild writes, "Langedijk and Berner have reached a level of musical maturity where less truly becomes more... stripping away effects, amplification, and studio trickery to focus solely on their instruments and musical dialogue."

Then strip away the traditional studio in exchange for a lovely natural acoustic space like the legendary Studio 2, MCO Hilversum, Netherlands, and beautiful, natural, acoustic music emerges.

The intimacy, the spatial presentation, the "you are there" realism of this recording is simply phenomenal. There is almost a "reach out and touch" realism to this recording. Like, they are really right there in your space before you. We are not gifted with many recordings as true and natural as this one.

And this is one of the joys about well-engineered "single microphone" recordings, about which a future article is planned to further explore. For now, just get this and enjoy.

🎵 Tim Langedijk & Paul Berner – From Now On
📍 Recorded by Frans de Rond | Studio 2, MCO Hilversum
👉 soundliaison.com/collections/home-page-collection/products/tim-langedijk-paul-berner-from-now-on

Acoustic jazz by Tim Langedijk & Paul Berner, captured in DXD with one mic. Pure, minimalist music in ultra-high-res. Exclusive at Sound Liaison.