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When one gets to work with truly world class musicians in such a wonderful space!

The clip here is of horn player Amy Smith of the US Navy Band and a floutist (whose name I don't recall, but I played with for several years in the Washington Symphony Orchestra).

The group is the Washington Sinfonietta and they are performing tomorrow night (this was the dress rehearsal I was recording - I'll be recording tomorrow night too) at the National City Christian Church in downtown DC (where 14th Street meets Mass. Ave.)

If any one is interested, it will be a good show.

I'll post a few more clips soon...

J.

Clip:
(Dead Link Removed)

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RemyRAD Thu, 12/07/2006 - 23:03

Jeremy! Truly wonderful sounding! Totally elegant. Now that's smooth reverb. Don't get that in no stinkin' digital gizmos.

Funny, I'll be there at that church on Saturday and Sunday with Sterling Productions where I will be the EIC and 1 of 3 camera guys for the Washington Children's Chorus. Sorry tomorrow night I'm at McLean high school recording sum snot nosed kids.

Snot Knows Engineer
Ms. Remy Ann David

Cucco Fri, 12/08/2006 - 10:07

Boswell wrote:
How are you miking it?

I'll post some pics soon, but here's the rundown -

Main pair - Schoeps CMC 6 MK 21 in ORTF roughly 6 feet behind the conductor and 8.5 feet up - angled slightly down (maybe 10 degrees off horizontal axis).

Aux pair - Gefell M296 as flanks - 3 feet or so behind the main pair and 8 feet off center.

Woodwind spots - Beyer M130s in blumlein at the back row of cellos (think Berlin arrangement - celli in the middle violas outside) aiming into the woodwinds also aimed slightly down so that the strings are in the null and the ww's are in the pattern.

Spot on the horns - Beyer M160 7 feet up pointed down into the section from the front (no pic). They're kind of buried, hence the lack of pic and the need for a spot. Only a little spot is called in though - just enough to highlight articulations.

I took a LOT of pics at the rehearsal, but my memory card is taking a dump on me (last time I cheap out and use microdisks instead of solid state!) So...only a few turned out...

J.

Cucco Sat, 12/09/2006 - 10:04

Well...the recording was last night (the concert that is) and overall, it went quite well!

The only exception being, during Mendellsohn's 3rd (the final piece and the whole second part of the concert), there was a child (who was old enough to know better - probably 7 or 8) who was talking QUITE loudly throughout the ENTIRE 1st and 2nd movements!

Finally one of the concert patrons quietly walked over the childs mother and asked her and her children to leave - which they did but not quietly!!!

It turns out, they were probably related to one of the orchestra members as they were seen at the reception post-concert!

I think I have good takes of both movements from the dress rehearsal though, so all might not be lost...

J.

FifthCircle Tue, 12/19/2006 - 10:06

Jeremy-

How do you deal with the rear lobes of your blumlein pair not mucking up the image of your orchestra?

I love blumlein recording, but even when I've positioned to put the rear lobes in the ceiling, the ambient information seems to really mess up my image as everything is on the wrong side... I love it for a main pickup, though...

--Ben

Cucco Tue, 12/19/2006 - 11:03

FifthCircle wrote: Jeremy-

How do you deal with the rear lobes of your blumlein pair not mucking up the image of your orchestra?

I love blumlein recording, but even when I've positioned to put the rear lobes in the ceiling, the ambient information seems to really mess up my image as everything is on the wrong side... I love it for a main pickup, though...

--Ben

Hey Ben!

That's a phenomenal question!

Usually I wouldn't use Blumlein for spots - I will often go M/S. However, With the ceiling height in this case, I was able to angle the MS config down into the woodwinds, place the strings in the null (bottom null) and not worry about much in the way of reflected sounds as the nearest direct wall to the rear lobe of the mics was roughly 50+ feet away (VERY high ceilings...They have to be, there's some 32 foot pipes in that there organ!) In fact, when soloing just the blum pair, you can hardly hear strings at all.

In this case, it actually helped me to get a little of the uncorrelated ambience of the woodwinds. Also, given that the spots are low output ribbons, I didn't have to worry too much about accidentally riding the gain too high. In fact, since I was mixing this one down in post, I opened the Millennias all the way up during tracking. Of course, they were *barely* used in the mix down, which is probably another way that the balance was preserved.

If I get a few extra minutes, I'll do a bounce of just those two tracks and let you see (err, hear) how effective that bottom null was.

J.

Thomas W. Bethel Wed, 12/20/2006 - 05:24

Cucco

Nicely done.

How do you get permission from the fire marshal to put your microphones in the center aisle? We always get grief from the presenters if we try and use a center aisle microphone. They say it blocks the egress from the hall and also in choral situations the choir likes to walk down the center aisle. Thanks for any input.

Cucco Wed, 12/20/2006 - 05:36

Thomas W. Bethel wrote: Cucco

Nicely done.

How do you get permission from the fire marshal to put your microphones in the center aisle? We always get grief from the presenters if we try and use a center aisle microphone. They say it blocks the egress from the hall and also in choral situations the choir likes to walk down the center aisle. Thanks for any input.

We usually get grief for that too! The trick here was...no fire marshall was present. :lol: Besides, the aisles are pretty wide and there was actually 3 feet of clearance on either side.

For this situation (churches with center aisles - especially those with choirs proceding down them) I usually use a photo back drop stand (available at B&H or Adorama for around $120) which I set one leg in one aisle, one leg in the oposite aisle and suspend the metal pole between the two mounting my mics on the suspended metal pole. (Imagine a big archway with the mics suspended in the middle of the arch).

To mount the mics to the pole, I use a clamp which came with some cheap old pop filter that I got for $5 when Mars music was going out of business...

J.

mdemeyer Wed, 12/20/2006 - 12:32

I use one of the Quik Lok stands, similar to the A85 (I think it's an A50, but I didn't install the casters). It has solid metal legs making it stable enough to use without sandbags. It's heavy at 30+ pounds, but very stable at least when carrying SDC-sized mics.

Have no problem putting it in a row (or along one side of the aisle so it does not block the aisle) and coming out into the center of the aisle using the boom. I use the AEA dead drop hanger to make it easy to align the mics when the boom angle is changed.

There is a new Quik Lok stand called the StuBoom for about $100 that seems to include the drop leg to hold the mic, but have not used it.

Michael