My Most Successful Orchestra Recording Yet!

[Basspig]

In October, I covered an sound & video recording of a major symphony orchestra here in the northeast US. There was some initial resistance to my proposed microphone placement, but in the end I got 100% of what I wanted. The result was something that pleased the orchestra management beyond their wildest imaginings:

The project involved 7 channels of sound, five up front and a secondary 'balcony mix' in stereo, plus the usual camera audio, as a synch aid.

We flew a proprietary array of phase-locked microphones over the 4th row center at 18' up, using 100' of aircraft cable stretched from one side of the auditorium to the other and tethered to the balcony light poles from the back. That drove a bank of phantom-powered mic preamps with 24-bit A/D converters, which fed a laptop DAW, recording to hard drive with Vegas.

We used three HDV cameras to shoot the video portion. One fixed and locked off on the conductor, another at stage right and one in the balcony.

Below are some excerpts taken at various stages of the rough editing:
(note, copy and paste entire URL if click doesn't work)

VIDEOS:
http://www.basspig.com/WindowsMedia/..._5-excerpt.wmv

www.basspig.com/WindowsMedia/GBSO_Multi-camera[excerpt].wmv

www.basspig.com/WindowsMedia/GBSO_Multi-camera[excerpt2].wmv

AUDIO:
http://www.basspig.com/MP3/GBSO_Pian...o(excerpt).mp3


All in all, the concert went extremely well, and all equipment ran without a glitch.

An interesting thing happened during the opener with the national anthem: the 1400 audience members sang in chorus. The front microphones picked up the orchestra exclusively; the rear surround mics picked up the ad-hoc 'choir' exclusively. In full surround playback, it feels as though one is sitting in the audience, as there's singing all around and in back of you, while the orchestra is heard up front.

Multi-camera editing in Premiere CS3 was a breeze, once I fixed several A/V synch glitches in the camera tracks, due to what I am told is a known problem with CS3 capture. The A/B/C roll cutting was fast and easy to do on our 3.6GHz quad-core system and the overall project went quickly.

Presently we are working on menu designs for the DVD. Audio CDs are finished and out the door. Window dub went to the client last week. We should be completed with the DVD by end of month.

The concert represents a big, huge success story for Adobe products, of which Premiere, Illustrator, AfterEffects and PhotoShop were all involved in making of this product. It also represents a successful achievement of our microphone array design goals. All involved are extremely happy with the resulting recordings.

[drf]

Well done, it looks and sounds great. Theres no better feeling than when you excell yourself in this sort of game is there?

[Basspig]

I've worked in a wide spectrum of careers over the 20th century, ranging from lighting protection to laser optics to electronics and audio and broadcast electronics design, and none has given me the ephiphany that I experienced when I recorded my first symphony orchestra some years ago: the realization that THIS... was what I am all about. This gave real meaning and purpose to my life, and I wasn't interested in making it to 5PM--I was interested in making the BEST recording possible and would do anything it took to achieve that goal.

With the symphony, I had to fight tooth and nail to get my preferred microphone position, a position that only respected recording engineers like Ray Kimber could command. I pretty much twisted their arms until I got what I wanted. And the orchestra committee feels no regrets for compromising their decorum for this recording, as the results just blew them away. I was told that it was the best recording of that orchestra that has ever been made. That put a smile on my face.

I'm rather pleased, too, that I did this with just a few people, and not 10-12 that normally would be involved in a video/audio recording like this, nor the 60 or so that would be involved in the DVD mastering and production. I have had to learn immense amounts of new information and tools to be able to do the work of many individuals. But the reality is that we achieved a landmark recording and with far less human resources than traditionally used. For that, I am proud.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Nice work, Mark! I enjoy mixing, but I can’t imagine what it would take to do an orchestra. My hat’s off!

Regards,
Wayne

[tonyvdb]

Mark, That is just fantastic work. It would have been fun to be there as I have done live recordings of a large Christmas production using a 40 piece Orchestra here for many years and have always loved the warm sound that comes from a live recording.

[Basspig]

Thanks guys. This is really a labor of love and a passion for me. It's not just a business. It's something I deeply, personally enjoy and find 100% fulfilling. I'm fortunate that my reputation in these parts is such that I enjoy the freedom to try experimental miking techniques and work on furthering the state of the art.

One of the fascinating things about this business is the amount of learning I have to do to put new tools to work for me in ways that enable me to compete with larger outfits. I have had to learn everything from non-linear editing (I come from a linear editing school of technique) on computers and DVD authoring, down to the programming of registers and program chains in Scenarist. I've handled pretty much every aspect of this business, from print graphics and design of the liners, to the actual shooting of the event. Of course, it pays to attend all rehearsals!

[tweeksound]

That is some impressive audio and video.
You must be proud!

What can you tell us about the phase locked mic placement?

[Basspig]

Yes, I'm absolutely pleased with the resulting recordings. The 5-channel surround verson is just incredible.

The miking array is, in the most basic form, a hybrid of Ray Kimber's IsoMikes concept (without the need for baffles), ORTF and Decca Tree, with the mics' angles with respect to eachother calculated based on the falloff of their pickup patterns. The goal was to achieve a wide soundstage with little overlap between the front three mics. The mics, also being directional, tend to 'telescope' like an analogy of a zoom lens, bring the sounds apparently closer, so the sound is detailed like close-miked pickup, but due to the distance, the sound is also a balanced mix of the entire orchestra.

My earlier micing arrangement was ORTF, but the soundstage was not as wide due to the close proximity of the mic capsules to eachother. This new 'grid' array has surpassed all my previous efforts and my expectations.

[tweeksound]

Thank you for sharing.
I'm always interested in micing technique.

I worked with the Voices from the Heart 200 piece female choir w/hand percussion a couple weeks ago
up in Portsmouth NH.
I recorded their dress rehearsal and their concert using an ORTF center and a spaced pair.
Then I had an omni in the center of the room.
They have a concert coming up in in December and I'm looking for an new and interesting micing array.

Is mono capability an issue with your recording or set up?
What mics did you use?
Were they cardioid, super cardioid, or hypercardioid?

Again, thanks for sharing.

[Basspig]

tweeksound wrote:

Thank you for sharing.
have a concert coming up in in December and I'm looking for an new and interesting micing array.

Is mono capability an issue with your recording or set up?
What mics did you use?
Were they cardioid, super cardioid, or hypercardioid?

Again, thanks for sharing.

The mics are cardioid pattern, large-diaphragm studio condensers with very low self-noise, and with very little coloration at the edges (the polar response off-axis is quite flat). Mono capability is fine, although there are three channels to optionally mixdown to mono. The piano and brass/woodwinds dominate the center channel, whilst the double-basses and cellos are dominant in the right, and kettle drums, upper strings dominant in the left. Many mixdown choices abound.

[tweeksound]

Don't suppose I could get a make and model of the mics?
Were they matched pairs?

[Basspig]

The microphones used were made by a German company, Behringer, and the model is B-1. It is a large diaphragm condenser mic with an unusually neutral off-axis response and very low *actual* self-noise. The useable response extends from 4Hz to a little over 35KHz, based on our testing. We pruchased them through Broadcast Supply Worldwide, a few years ago.

[drf]

I have heard these mics get a really good rap on other recording forums and from home studio enthusiasts, so I am not really surprised that they sound this good in a theatre. Though I am a little surprised that a professional like yourself has opted to give them ago on the job, I am only small time but even I have trouble using Berry gear for "on the road" or "mission critical" work.
I guess this is living proof that our perception of a products quality and worth will in someway distort our evaluation of its performance.

I am now left confused as to whether I want to go down the Rode path for my home studio or consider the berry option and save a few dollars.

[Basspig]

I will readily admit that I was a former anti-Behringer bigot for a number of years in the beginning, about a decade ago. I considered them to be the mainstay of pirate radio broadcasters and just plain junk. No, I had never listened to a Behringer product at the time. I just parroted all the other anti-Behringer bigots.

Then one day, I needed an inexpensive mixer for some computer editing sound work. I decided to try a Behringer. That was five or six years ago. I still use that mixer today.

Shortly after the mixer purchase, just for kicks, I bought one of the B-1s to give it a try. I was confident that one of my Neumann U87A’s would put it to shame. Holy smokes, what a surprise was in store for me. I used it for some voiceover work at first, but then in 2005, I bought 7 more B-1’s and took them to a small outdoor concert. I found the B-1s’ to be every bit as articulate and audibly just as quiet as the U87A’s I had been using. After a couple of recording sessions in the field, I made a practical business decision. I needed to upgrade equipment and software in the transition to HD video, so I sold the Neumann’s and used the cash to make significant improvements to my video production capabilities. The clients still remark about how great the sound is, and I never mentioned changing the mics.
Frankly, if I can’t hear the difference between a $3700 mic and a $99 mic, then I doubt my clients will either. And I’m one very picky listener. When the original 24/96 PCM audio is played through a quality D/A converter on my sound system, there is a palpable sense of realism. Unfortunately, we can’t quite yet author Blu-ray DVDs, so Dolby Surround looses a lot of the presense/realism. But yes, I’ve had to suck in my pride and make a practical business decision based purely on sound quality.

[Basspig]

I have added some clips to my business site. Here's a direct link to the Flash media clips of two orchestra shoots. NOTE: Compressed heavily. Sound quality is not very good.

www.mwcomms.com/video_production_portfolio.htm

[SteveCallas]

Great stuff. So what musical works was their performance comprised of and can a fellow enthusiast like myself buy a dvd copy from you? HTS discount, right?

[Basspig]

It was a Beethoven concert; Fidelio Overture, Piano Concerto No. 1, and the 5th Symphony.

I don't know where things will go with this video. We're trying to sell the idea cautiously to the orchestra members about the possibility of a PBS documentary in the future. At the moment, it's being billed as an archival video, just to get us in the door. But the executive director is on board with the idea of taking it beyond that and we're taking it step by step.

Tentatively, they've already asked me to record another concert in the future (the request came from a Chinese performer who's booked for next season.) Things are looking encouraging, especially since the orchestra manager was explaining to me his interest in expanding into Japanese orchestral music, such as Final Fantasy. I am thrilled at the prospect of a US orchestra performing such music and me being the recording engineer.