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Have you ever considered recording a CD with your Orchestra?
Professional orchestras
can secure significant sponsorship to pay for expensive recording sessions
in big name recording studios. It doesn't have to be like that.
Even amateur orchestras and ensembles with very tight budgets can make a CD.
I would love the chance to provide my professional recording services to
your orchestra and I offer a comprehensive recording package.
I bring the digital recording equipment to a suitable venue of your choice
and together we can create a unique CD that you will be proud of. I
can usually produce final mixed and mastered CD's within a week or two of
the session, sometimes much quicker. This will enable the production run
to start promptly and you
minimise the time before you can start selling the production CD's.
Why Record a CD with Your Orchestra?
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Many orchestras want to make a recording at some point to
capture and enjoy the music that they make.
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You can
raise money by selling CDs to audiences / friends / parents at a
profit.
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For
the enjoyment and experience of making a recording.
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To
have a permanent record / souvenir of your event.
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To
provide an opportunity for press or radio coverage for your orchestra, either of which could help fundraising.
Where Can You Record - Choosing A Venue ?
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Orchestral recording is best done in a venue with pleasant
acoustics. Typically, if the venue sounds good to sing or play in then
usually it will also be a good location for a sound recording.
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For an orchestra this usually means recording in a performing area with
a floor space that could take 4 to 5 times the number of players and
which does not have a low ceiling. This sort of space helps blend
individual instrument sounds into a coherent ensemble performing in a
real space.
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Some venues, such as large churches are too big and will produce
significant echoes and other reverberant sounds that could overpower the
direct sound. However, some music (particularly religious pieces) is
designed to sound good in such an environment.
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If the recording venue is not where you usually rehearse or perform, it
may be wise to have a pre-recording rehearsal there just in case there
are any unforeseen problems.
Balancing The Sound
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The conductor normally ensures a natural balance of the instruments.
Unless you want it to sound otherwise I try to capture the sound heard
in the recording area.
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To achieve this, in a good acoustic space I will set up an array of
microphones on a large tripod stand (A Decca Tree) behind and above the
conductor to get a good, basic stereo soundstage for the recording.
This gives a pleasant openness to the sound. I can also use other
stereo microphone arrays to provide a more defined stereo image. (e.g.
M-S Middle & Side, Crossed Pair, ORTF, Blumlein Crossed cardioids).
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I can position other microphones to cover various sections of the
orchestra
to be used if necessary to alter the relative balance of the sections
and soloists or to help “fix” the location of instruments that will
spill into most of the other microphones (e.g. Bass Drum). This will be
essential in venues with high reverberation where we need to capture as
little of the room ambience as possible.
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I can use up to 21 microphones if required but often need less than 10.
I will do detailed planning before the job starts. It helps greatly to
have a detailed sketch of the proposed musician layout to work from.
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Each microphone signal will pass through my digital mixing desk and be
recorded to its own separate channel on my 24 track hard disc recorder.
This will give me total freedom to re-balance microphone levels at the
mixdown stage.
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At the time recording of I will provide a pair of high-quality headphones and small
JBL monitor speakers to listen back after each take if required.
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Within the agreed time limit you can record as many “takes” of each
piece as required then select the best take, or I can edit together the
best sections from different takes providing the tempo is reasonably
consistent at the edit points.
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When recording live concerts with an audience I use the minimum number
of microphones and stands (or floor-mounted PZM mics or suspended mics)
since multiple microphones can give a cluttered look on the stage that is
not acceptable to an audience. The other recording equipment can be
sited away from audience view.
On The Day
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Orchestral recordings are often best captured during a two day session.
With a full 2 day session the pressure is significantly reduced.
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Another alternative is to share a two-day session with another orchestra
or ensemble and do
two half-day sessions each. This would minimize my mileage costs and
significantly reduce average set-up times. We
would replicate mic positions and control settings for at each session as
far as possible.
Please
contact me now to discuss any recording requirements you have.
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