The recording went well, I am yet to listen to it with fresh ears since I used a friend's laptop. I will post samples soon.
It was a thrill! Having never done that kind of job before I was a bit anxious and how right was I to be:
1. After I setup my ORTF pair behind the conductor's stand and begin working the vertical angle of the mics, getting a great sound while the orchestra is still rehearsing, out of the blue comes the light technician to let me know how ugly my mics looks like that, and how it will affect the visuals and that the conductor won't be able to salute (sorry i am french, can't find the correct word) the audience ...
I find a pair of Geffel mics a beautiful thing and my mic stand is the thinest before invisible but my humor is not well received and Mr Beam goes find the MD who didn't seem to mind my mics at all. Sure enough both come back to me and all of a sudden my mic stand is not welcome there anymore (Ahh politics).
Mr Beam proposes the idea of hanging my stereo bar from 2 columns with fishing wire/cord/whatever we can find ... At that point I am seriously thinking of packing up and go home but somehow I accept the idea as long as my mics are safe .... Being in love makes you do strange things, esp. being in love with recording.
So up on a ladder goes my new friend Beam with a thick piece of string tied to my stereo bar; in less of 5mn the pair is up and after minor adjustments it looks centered ... only that now I dont have any control over the angle at which the mics are pointing to the orchestra. It isn't bad although a bit further than I'd like, checking with headphones until .... until the percussionist shows up late for rehearsal (or something like that) and starts banging on his toys like a posessed man. OUCH! My ORTF pair is hanging in the air and pointing straight at the russian John Bonham wanabee. Well at this point I can only deal with it, no way to access my mics and the stereo pair i had further out in the hall now has to be brought up front so I can get the front of the orchestra since it gets covered by xylos, bass drums and cymbals. In all I think I had 5 minutes to get the sound because at this point the rehearsal is over ... Great ... So much for fine tuning my placement. But the sound in the cans is pleasant so inch allah, or vaya con dios.
2. Concert starts, I've been recording for 5 minutes ... i am a newbie, I make sure not to miss the downbeat
All goes well, still sounds good in the cans .... After 40 minutes I hear a light buzz in one mic ...bzzz... skcrshhhh...... shhhhh....... SILENCE! OK what's going on?!!! Don't panic! U can sweat but don't panic ... A quick touch to the mic preamp channel input gain knob off and back to its position and sound is back, waveform drawing happy ... I don't know what hapenned, maybe my Phoenix Audio DRS2's "channel 1" dind't appreciate travelling across the ocean and/or the cold weather ... Anyways, I lost about 10 seconds on one track ... I'll try to mask it, wish me luck.
I used Audiodesk on a Powerbook, runs fine with the motu828. I'll transfer to Nuendo for editing and mixing.
Wow that's a long post ... It wasnt intended to be. Hope I didn't bore the hell out of you guys ... Guess not if you're still reading lol.
Anyways I realized how important it is to be ready to deal with people and the polictics and dynamics of a group (in this case a church group of old french folks) who don't necessarily like you being there and be diplomatic although you're under pressure. Much learned anyways, that was the point of this exercise.
Cheers,
Regis