How to make record albums

Atmashpere, great description of your recording projects.

I think we agree that great recordings start with great musicians, a great recording space, great mics and mic preamps. We differ on the degree that classical recordings are similar to pop/rock recordings. You remark that they are very similar if the rock band is trying to get the best sound possible. I guess it depends on how you define that. Steely Dan, Roxy Music, Micheal Jackson/Quincy Jones, Pink Floyd, the Eagles, etc. all are known to be fanatical about getting the best possible sound for their recordings. They're all big users of multi-track over dubbing with extensive signal processing. They are still able to achieve high quality sounding recordings. In skilled hands with high budgets multi-track over dubbing can work extremely well. For these artists there is not even a single in-studio performance that is being documented. This process differs from classical style recording in that the music arises from a multitude of recordings and is literally created after the fact by the technology. If what you're trying to record is an actual in-studio performance by a band, then classical and pop/rock recordings are very much alike.

Atmasphere, that deal with where to place the mics sounds like that could be a critical thing.

What was so special about for instance, Ken Wilkinson? He knew what to do with the mics. Is it that he had an ear for where to place them? Is there a general formula for this? I see his name everywhere on the Decca classical list. All of the classical recordings he is associated with are very good to fantastic. I am sure that others knew what he did. He did seem to pick the same places to do the recordings.

Wilma Cozart Fine is another one who was instumental in making great recordings. It looks like Mercury used three mics for their recordings. They did not look like they were set up in any real specialized way. Maybe they were and it just does not look like it

I have not heard or seen a good classical album made like these in years. Why Not? Who would one contact to try to get the ball rolling? Stereophile? Absolute Sound? How would one go about doing something great?

Maybe recording a smaller ensemble in a great place acoustically would be a good place to start. I don't know. I certainly do not know what it takes to make a great recording but I would be willing to help in any way if a group of people wanted to try to make it happen.

If you want to replicate the classic Mercury sound, you might try sending the line output down a few miles of telephone wire!

Lesse... for a top-notch recording of Pink Floyd, find a copy of The Screaming Abdabs (this is Pink Floyd when they were off-contract) 'Rhapsody in Pink', a 2-LP set. It is recorded in the BBC studios before a Decca Stereo tree, the same kind that Kenneth Wilkinson used that made his recordings so good. This recording has no overdubs, no EQ, just the raw mic feed on LP. Its the best sound (IMO) that Pink Floyd ever got and is an excellent example of How to Record a Rock Band in HiFi.

(Pardon me if I say that Pink Floyd and host of others mentioned could have done a lot better job, but often don't because its hard.)

If you show up at RMAF or THE Show I will play it for you.

Mercury used a set of 3 omni microphones, the 3rd being dead center. This mic was usually mixed into the other two channels for stereo. The Decca stereo Tree was a set of cardioids mounted on a baffle that had a sound absorbing panel between the mics. Sometimes a 3rd mic was mounted on the middle panel. Wilkinson favored this approach and also used it on most of the RCAs recorded in England. Both techniques have their strengths and weaknesses!

For our drums we used something a lot like the Decca tree, but no baffles. The mics were angled about 110 degrees off from each other. This is a classic way of recording in stereo and works as well for drums as it does for a full orchestra.

This is why I say recording the orchestra or a band is not that far apart. I've dealt with orchestra leaders who wanted me to use more mics and signal processing, don't think for a minute that the classical world is purist-only!!

Here is a great book that may help all of us audiophools appreciate what goes into a great-sounding LP (or 45!):

http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Stories-Great-Records-Softcover/dp/0879308176

An interesting and fun read...highly recommended.