Re: [ARSCLIST] How not to mike an orchestra

[Charles Lawson <clawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Olhsson writes:
>Most contemporary music
>producers are musicians. This is a lot of why so many of today's pop
>records
>have been massaged with digital technology until they sound like a
>sampling
>keyboard that is being run by a MIDI sequencer. 

Any "producer" who does this sort of thing can hardly be classified as a
musician.  Such people are mere technologists.

By and large, hands-on conductors and musicians tend to hamper recordings
rather than help them.  Exceptions exist, of course, but the
musician/conductor operates according to certain expectations that do not
necessarily translate well to recorded sound reproduced in a typical
listening environment.

My goals have always been to give the end listener the experience of being
in the best seat in the house.  That does NOT reflect the perspective of
the conductor on the podium or the oboe in the orchestra (thank
goodness!).  It does represent the best balance of orchestral sections to
one another and direct-to-ambient sound that I can achieve in whatever
venue I happen to be working in.  In a Joshua Bell situation, the violin
line should certainly float above the orchestra so that it can be clearly
heard (since it is so incredibly clearly rendered by Mr. Bell!), but the
huffing and wheezing (should it occur) must never be so prominent that it
is noted by a listener.  Mr. Bell has never generated such noises on any
recording I have had the opportunity to make and I am very sorry to hear
that there may be one out there that exhibits the distressing
hyper-accuracy that modern technology can allow.

If anything, as the technology improves, microphones should be placed
farther from the source.  We no longer need to compensate for noisy
electronics and storage media.  In a digital world, less is better.

--
Charles Lawson <clawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Professional Audio for CD, DVD, Broadcast & Internet