9ft Hamburg Steinway D Recording Studio Near London
Record on a full-size Hamburg concert grand, hand-selected at Steinway Hall and maintained by Steinway & Sons.
Available for piano recording, classical sessions and remote MIDI-to-Steinway recordings.
The 9ft Hamburg Steinway Model D set up for recording at Curtis Schwartz Studio.
Record in the studio
For pianists, composers, artists and producers who want a real full-size Hamburg Steinway D recorded in the studio.
Remote Steinway recording
For remote work, MIDI performances can be reproduced on the real Steinway and captured through the studio’s microphone chain.
“Quite simply the best piano sound I’ve ever experienced.”
Robert Foster, composer
The Piano
A 9ft Hamburg Steinway Model D Spirio | r, hand-selected for recording.
The piano at Curtis Schwartz Studio is a full-size Hamburg Steinway Model D concert grand, chosen for its depth, balance, sustain and expressive range.
It was bought new in 2023 and hand-selected at Steinway Hall with pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock.
Maintained by Steinway & Sons. The piano is maintained exclusively by Steinway & Sons technicians and tuned regularly through Steinway. A fresh tuning immediately before a session can also be arranged when required.
Voicing and character. The Steinway responds closely to the player. In delicate repertoire it can be light, feathery and intimate; in Rachmaninov it can become powerful, fiery and orchestral; and in pop or rock it responds just as readily to a more direct, rhythmic approach. Its character is not fixed. The colour of the instrument changes with the player’s touch, dynamics and musical intention.
Because it is a Spirio | r, MIDI performances can also be played back on the real acoustic instrument and recorded through the studio’s microphone chain.
Riopy recording on the 9ft Hamburg Steinway Model D Spirio | r at Curtis Schwartz Studio.
Record on the Steinway
Use the Steinway for solo piano, classical sessions, jazz, film and TV music, singer-songwriter recordings, overdubs, library music, mockups and production work.
The piano is recorded in the main live room through carefully chosen microphones and an analogue recording chain, preserving the natural resonance and acoustic interaction of the instrument.
A sampled piano can sound impressive on its own, but can become thinner or more brittle once EQ’d, compressed and pushed into a full mix. A real Steinway recording retains its depth, movement and resonance because it is a real acoustic instrument.
Years later, it still sounds like a Steinway, not like a piano sound from a particular software era.
A real Steinway recording gives your music its best chance of sounding timeless.
Hear the Steinway
Recorded completely naturally.
Signal path: microphones → valve mic preamps → Pro Tools at 96 kHz. No EQ. No compression.
What you are hearing is a real piano in a real acoustic space, with the strings, soundboard and room interacting before the sound reaches the microphones. That acoustic complexity gives you more depth and natural information to work with when shaping the piano in a mix.
Under substantial EQ or compression, that matters. A real acoustic recording can retain its weight, resonance and sense of space under processing, where a sampled piano can begin to sound thinner or more brittle. There is a real instrument exciting a real room and moving real air behind every note.