There is so much that goes into a great recording. Simpler is better, but there is a lot to know. For example, the Cleveland orchestra was recorded by Decca, Kenneth Wilkinson at the mason hall in Cleveland and not severance hall. Why? Because he knew what he wanted to hear in an acoustic sense. He knew right where to place the microphones. He knew where he wanted the musicians to be with respect to the microphones in a very detailed sense. Its not just about the recording path, but how to actually record in let's say analog, and really make it sound as great as analog can be. How many even know how to do this? What to listen for and so on. Some know right away, like Wilkinson.
is there a market?
Is their a large enough market within the audiophile community and music lovers alike to start a recording company that recorded primarily jazz and classical music the right way? Is there a chance to capture the great orchestras of america in a totally analog process from start to finish just like they did back in the fifties? I would think many orchestras would jump at the opportunity to be part of the effort to be recorded like the great orchestras were in the mid 20th century. Is there still equipment in existence and engineering know how to make this happen? There certainly is a renewed interest in vinyl and the sound it produces even if it is done digitally. How about the real thing?
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- 26 posts total
There is so much that goes into a great recording. I found the article at this link very interesting on how they used to do the recordings. http://www.polymathperspective.com/?p=2484 It focuses on the recording techniques for orchestras, and also provides some good info on what is going on behind the scenes. Like the competition that was between Decca and EMI. couple excerpts “It’s not well known,” says Mike, “but there were at least seven or eight different tree formations with a variety of microphone types, and there were two philosophies of using a tree. One was the Roy Wallace philosophy which was the tree by itself, which produced a wonderful three-dimensional image; the second came from Kenneth Wilkinson who came to stereo in ’58 and decided that the tree needed help from outriggers; focusing on violins on the left, cellos on the right. Eventually their techniques blended – Wallace was using outriggers, as were other technicians.” “Compression was something used in the pop world to get maximum dB on the tape for AM radio,” says Mike. “Decca didn’t use compression for classical recording but there was gain riding. The idea was that a loud movement would peak at zero, but the soft movements also had to come close to match. We’re not talking about ferocious gain riding, just little tweaks." |
- 26 posts total