Topic: Team classical recording

[Gutbucket]

Interesting comparison, John. Thanks.

Both sound very good. I hear sharper imaging and a fully developed, well balanced sound with the mic'ing distance of the 4051s -vs- increased recording depth, space, smoothness of response and a sort of direct upfront realness with the proximity of the 4022s.

[jnorman34]

mr bucket - thanks for the comments.  i think i wound up using a blend of the two pairs in the final mix.

[Mike R.]

To follow up from a few days ago, with clips, about 20 sec each:

The first two are in a living room, high ceilings, panel walls and ceiling, rug on floor.

FluteCelloM88

FluteCello3032

The following is in an auditorium, public concert performance.

BambooShamisenM88

I'll keep these files up for a little while, but not forever.  The links will go dead eventually.

[edited to add descrptive text to URLs]

[WiFiJeff]

I ran the Strauss Packet (DPA 4099 + DPA 4063 pairs) as planned, but a computer crash kept me from doing the editing until yesterday.  I was sitting ten rows back from the stage, normally not great for the best sound; on top of that, the conductor had the orchestra playing way too loud and often covered the piano soloist (this was a problem all through the hall, as friends were sitting upstairs and also complained of this).  I experimented with a straight mix, but ended up going with the omnis low-passed (down about -20 dB above 300 Hz) as I do for opera, which had the advantage of a quieter tape since the hypercards screened out much of the rather filthy audience coughing and noises in the quieter passages, making cleanup in iZoptope RX a bit easier.

I am reasonably pleased with the recording.  The piano is still somewhat distant (I like to be under the instrument), but the sound is much better than I have ever gotten this far back.  NO, repeat NO, mini cardioid has ever sounded this good to me, and few larger ones either.

Jeff

[Gutbucket]

Thanks for the update Jeff, I'm really intrigued with what you're doing. I still need to call DPA in Denver and ask about the new rumored mini cards before committing to these.  Have you heard anything else about those?

Similarly, I recorded last night from what I figured would be less than optimal seats, 14th row back way off to the side, under the balcony. Solo female vocal with piano accompaniment, PA reinforced in a gorgeously refurbished 1500 seat theater.  Used the 4 x 4060 (L,R,C,B) technique and am amazed how well it worked from that position.  I moved forward out from under the balcony for the final encore and was surprised to find the sound quality diminished somewhat, less clarity and a bit much reverb from the open volume to the ceiling.  They installed a new FOH system during the latest refurbishment and I think they may have installed a LARES or equivalent DSP acoustic enhancement system as there are now arrayed speakers hidden in the side walls throughout the hall and under the front edge of the balcony. Listening to the just the L/R stereo pair actually sounds a bit over dry and up-front in comparison to playback with all four channels, the opposite of what I normally would expect from that position in the room.  Haven't tried mixing the four channels down to stereo with this recording.

A few photos-

[boojum]

You guys are makin' me feel bad doin' my guerrilla taping in saloons.

I ran the 4061's for the first time.  Mmmm-hmmm.  They sound nice.  I am just now combining the tracks and will compare the 4061 in AB to the Schoeps in ORTF.  First impression of the 4061's:  Wow!  I am just now working on the Schoeps tracks and have not heard them.

L8R

[guysonic]

A customer recently sent both photo and recording sample of a christmas song using the DSM LiteGUY baffled array in the picture below. 



The ~4.2 MEG recording sample is at www.sonicstudios.com/SHEPARDS PIPE CAROL (JOHN RUTTER).mp3

The gear used was Sonic Studios system of DSM-6S/H model mic + LiteGUY HRTF baffle + balanced output PA-24 series preamp driving 24 foot balanced extension into MT1 using deck's TRS input.

The church's interior is solid stone construction and extremely live.  As some of you know, large choral inside extremely live rooms is quite problematic to record satisfactorly using most mic arrays.

I think you'll find this recording quite good considering the circumstances.

[boojum]

^^^ GS - Interesting.  Is there a way that I can DL rather than be forced to listen to this in Quicktime?

[Gutbucket]

^^^ GS - Interesting.  Is there a way that I can DL rather than be forced to listen to this in Quicktime?

 
Right click and save as, or just drag the link to your player of choice's playlist.



Found this great full BBC orchestra redition of Cage's 4:33, especially moving for recordists that actually listen to all the sounds of silence that most people ignore.. except when forced to acknowledge it by pieces such as this.

[boojum]

^^^ GS - Interesting.  Is there a way that I can DL rather than be forced to listen to this in Quicktime?

 
Right click and save as, or just drag the link to your player of choice's playlist.

 

That works.   ;o)   Nice sense of space in the recording.  And Rochester; say no more!

[guosh86]

sorry off topic, but just thought i'd post some pictures up

just got back from a recording session. flew a dpa 4006 pair about 6 feet from the orchestra, ~4 feet above the conductor's head. added another 2 dpa supercardoids at circle 3 raised on stands pointing upwards towards the roof to capture some reverb. was just playing around with the pair at the back in all truth, just hoping it'd add something special to the recording

turned out alright, but we messed around using surround mixing and it was actually pretty interesting at the end. sounded good on the headphones, real surround, but we seemed to lose a little clarity in the process. i guess now we know why decca had the central mic so far forward from the other 2 mics! we didn't have a centre mic, so we tried to boost the phantom centre using the waves m360, but it just sounded too distant

was fun playing around though!

[boojum]

^^^ Good hall; good gear.  A recipe for success.  Thanks for the info on Decca and quasi surround.  Much of the current technique was arrived at after many attempts at honing the methods.  There is a good deal of art in this discipline as well as science.

Cheers

[guosh86]

did another recording in the hall today, with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra featuring Manuel Barrueco on solo guitar.

as it was, we wanted to get a fuller sound and try the decca tree. we were using the dpa surround kit to attempt this one, and came up with a rather odd decca tree - one with equal spacings, and placed about 18 feet above the stage.

results were actually surprisingly good, but we're planning to try it at a lower height, say about 10-12 feet above the stage, and with different spacings and see how it turns out the next time.

usually we've done surround using a stand, so it was the first time we've flown the kit. rather sad/amusing story though - we bought fishing line to fly the kit for the first time, and it was too thin. it led to the line cutting my hand as i was pulling it up, forcing me to let go and send it swinging across the stage!

luckily it didn't hit anything though... don't think i'd like to pay for those mics at all. but yep lesson learnt - wear gloves or get a thicker fishing line!

sorry i don't have that many pictures this time, didn't really have time to take them other than during the teardown. busy day since we were doing 32 channels and the decca tree actually took up most of the time, and we had to rush the rest of the spots and flanks after that.

interesting day all in all. managed to try out the beyer 910s and 950s and they worked nicely. will see if i can get some samples up. also, we managed to rent a dpa 4011 so we're going to try it out on thursday for a closed door recording and see how that works. looks to be an interesting period

[Gutbucket]

Good stuff. Nice little room you've got there. Thanks for the photos.

[boojum]

Good stuff. Nice little room you've got there. Thanks for the photos.

GB, demonstrating his mastery of understatement.