Host Rick Rubin sits down with Peter McGrath, a legendary recording engineer, former high-end audio retailer, and brand ambassador for Wilson Audio. The conversation spans Peter's decades-long career in capturing and reproducing classical music. He discusses his minimalist, two-microphone recording philosophy, his emotional discovery of soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson—who famously performed settings of Pablo Neruda's One Hundred Love Sonnets—and his close partnership with audio pioneer David Wilson.

The dialogue dives deep into the technical nuances of speaker design, contrasting traditional cone drivers with electrostatic and planar technologies like the classic Quad 57. Peter also details his purist approach to digital recording, his preference for high-resolution PCM over DSD, and the physical time-alignment techniques used by Wilson Audio. Finally, they reflect on the spiritual nature of music, touching on sacred choral works inspired by The Bible, and explore how the modern abundance of streaming music has transformed the audiophile landscape.

Minimalist Recording Philosophy and the Room

Peter advocates for minimal miking (often 2 to 4 microphones) to capture natural instrument interaction and room acoustics.

"My approach is born out of maybe ignorance or simplicity, but it's what I've always done." - Peter

For a tight room, Peter used an AKG C24 stereo tube microphone in a Blumlein configuration placed extremely close to the Jerusalem Street Quartet.

"The room wasn't additive in that case... and frankly, in some ways best ignored to minimize the effect of it." - Peter

The Discovery of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

Peter recorded a legendary performance of Handel's Messiah for Harmonia Mundi using only two microphones.

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, a former violist, auditioned spontaneously at Lucas Skywalker studio and moved the entire production team to tears.

"About a minute and a half in, I had to restrain from leaning over the tape recorder so that my tears would not fall on the tape path." - Peter

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson went on to record a breathtaking album of songs setting the poetry of Pablo Neruda's One Hundred Love Sonnets to music.

The Art of Live Recording and Minimal Editing

Peter and his late business partner Julian Krieger of Audiofon records favored continuous takes over heavy editing to preserve musical legitimacy.

"We would rather that they not rely on editing... we encouraged them and discouraged them from doing a lot of retakes." - Peter

Peter believes leaving minor slips or ambient noises, like a squeaking piano bench, preserves the humanity and momentum of a performance.

Time Alignment in Recording and Playback

The Blumlein recording technique uses two figure-of-eight capsules in virtual coincidence at 90 degrees to eliminate time delay and phase cancellation.

In playback, dual concentric drivers (like those designed by Andrew Jones) place the tweeter inside the midrange to prevent high-frequency smearing.

Wilson Audio speakers physically adjust separate driver enclosures forwards and backwards to achieve time alignment down to 4 microseconds.

"The idea is to mimic what the microphone does to make the speaker a point source." - Peter

David Wilson's Origin and the Audio Research Preamp

Wilson Audio founder David Wilson started as a purist recording engineer using two microphones.

David Wilson modified an Audio Research tube preamplifier by bypassing the RIAA phono equalization card to create a custom microphone preamp.

"This preamp is now exactly what it was when you sold it to me... I now have 60 dB of gain. 60 of the most beautiful dB of gain." - David Wilson via Peter

David Wilson's speaker manufacturing business grew out of a desire to build monitors that accurately reproduced his own recordings.

Electrostatic and Planar Speaker Technologies

The classic Quad 57 electrostatic speaker, designed by Peter Walker in England, uses a nearly massless Mylar film suspended between high-voltage grids.

"At this point, I'd rather listen to one Quad than two of anything else." - Garry Winogrand via Peter

Unlike traditional cone speakers, electrostatic panels have no cabinet enclosure, eliminating boxy coloration but limiting dynamic range and bass output.

Magnepan speakers use a magnetic panel system with wires attached to a Mylar diaphragm, acting like a giant flat voice coil.

The Transition from Analog Tape to High-Resolution Digital

Peter transitioned from a highly modified half-inch Studer tape recorder running at 30 IPS to a 4-track Nagra D digital recorder in 1992.

Digital recording solved pitch wavering (wow and flutter) on long sustained piano chords that plagued analog tape and vinyl pressings.

Peter prefers high-rate PCM (96 kHz or 192 kHz at 24-bit) over DSD because 1-bit DSD is highly difficult to edit without conversion.

"The minute I engage an equalizer, the minute I engage a compressor, the minute I manipulate the digital data, even reverb destroys it." - Peter

Sacred Music and the Power of Choral Performance

Peter highlights a recording of Frank LaRocca's Psalm 22, a sacred text sourced from The Bible, performed in a Miami church.

The contemplative practice of Lectio Divina uses reading, reflection, repetition, and rest to engage with the scriptures of The Bible.

Peter shares a story of Jordi Savall of Hesperion 21, who initially refused to be recorded due to his wife's terminal illness but later insisted Peter record their next concert.

"Pedro, this is my friend Peter. If he doesn't record, I don't play." - Jordi Savall via Peter