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My orchestra performed yesterday and I was the recording engineer (along with performer). Please give a listen to my recording and provide feedback - how can I improve this? Note, there was no EQ nor reverb added, this is straight from the pre-amp. To me, it doesn't really need any further EQ or verb (the room was very wet already) but if you disagree, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

https://rcpt.yousen…

Thanks

Comments

kazam Tue, 06/15/2010 - 01:25

Forgot about that. I used Neve 1073 pre-amp and a pair of audio technica 4047SV mics. These were recorded into a tascam dr-100 at 96khz/24 bit then downsampled to the 44/16 you hear. The main stage mics were close to the conductor - about 3 or 4 feet behind him in ORTF configuration. The room mic was about 15 feet back and it was rode NT4 with no pre-amp. I just mixed it in for ambience and more of the room sound but most of what you hear are the audio technicas. There is no reverb added. It's all from the room.

This is a live concert performance so you will hear general audience noises and some performance imperfections so don't let that distract you.

rmsaudio Tue, 06/15/2010 - 18:18

I think it sounds great! You did a great job. It's clear, and it definitely has that sense of "you're there" that comes with an ORTF configuration. Sounds like a great room too! I used to do a lot location recording using ORTF and NOS arrays, and I'm still love to listen to these types of recordings because of how natural and "real" they sound. I can't think of anything you need to do to improve upon this recording. It's very well done. Thank you for sharing it!

kazam Tue, 06/15/2010 - 18:23

Thanks alot, I really appreciate it. I am definitely still learning so hopefully I can reproduce the results next time. I wish I knew what all I did to get this sound. I thought the room was terrible because it was so wet. But was very surprised to notice the close mics didn't pick that up and the rear mics just have enough of that sound to add some reality. This was my second time recording. Last time didn't go over as well mostly because of my mastering techniques so I'm glad this sounds like it doesn't need mastering.

So you don't think it needs any reverb? I am a little concerned since the sound is so close and present and thereby not natural.

rmsaudio Tue, 06/15/2010 - 19:20

I think the amount of natural reverb you have in the recording is just right, but it is a subjective thing. I can hear a lot of the room but I can also still hear a lot of detail in the piano (upper harmonics in the bass notes etc) as well as the string section which tells me that the amount of reverb is fine but others may disagree. It may be worth it to play a bit with the level of the Rode mic to see if you can achieve something that feels more right to your ears.

It's often times a balance between what you heard when it was performed, and what you can recreate afterwards (without compromising clarity/fidelity). What's really great about how you chose to record this, is that you have flexibility. Adding the Rode for additional ambience was an excellent decision as it's always nice to have that flexibility later on.

Regarding room reverb in general, I used to find the same - when doing ORTF/NOS that often times I didn't capture near as much reverb in the recording as I imagined I would, but that's actually a good thing a lot of the time, as it's tougher to remove it if you have too much (but a little easier to enhance it if you need more). Often times I've found that the livelier rooms sounded better recorded than live since we can control how much of that reverb we actually record. Your choice of mic placement is really good :)! As you may know, if you set the mics too high or too far back, you end up with more audience noise, less detail in the instruments, and too much room. Some mics also start to sound a little weird from larger distances (some have better "reach" than others). I think you achieved a great balance with the placement you chose.

From a mastering perspective, to be honest I don't know much about that topic, particularly with regards to classical music, but what I can say is that the recording you've created sounds very natural to my ears, and there's nothing distracting about it (which is great - particularly for a recording of this nature where the room can have such an impact on the end result). I would be hesitant to suggest any kind of processing unless there's something that you're hearing that you would like to fix. This is a really good recording, particularly with it being your second attempt :)!