Got to watch PentaTone in action

[matyas]

I went to a performance of the Pittsburgh Symphony last night, and it turns out the performance was being recorded for PentaTone, for a surround-sound release on SACD of the complete Brahms symphonies (with Marek Janowski conducting) which will be coming out next year. I think PentaTone usually uses Polyhymnia as their recording company, so it was probably them.
Anyway, being the gearslut that I am, I paid special attention to how they miked the orchestra. It looked like they were using a combination of DPA and Schoeps. The main surround array looked like it consisted of a pair of DPAs on either side of the conductor, probably about 12 feet or so above stage level, with a pair of hall mics (also DPA) facing out into the hall (for surround pickup). There were also another set of mics (probably also DPA, but I couldn't really tell from where I was sitting), with spheres over the capsules, about six to eight feet out from the main pair which were either outriggers or spots for first violins (left hand side) and violas (right.) The spot mics for winds, timpani, and low strings mostly looked like Schoeps. As I mentioned, I think the recording is coming out sometime next year, and I think it will be a pretty interesting disc. Janowski's interpretation is very interesting, and if you never heard the Pittsburgh Symphony, they're really among the unsung heroes of American orchestras.

[DonM]

M:

Pittsburger here as well. Interesting that they did this recording given that Telarc was in town last weekend doing one with the PSO. Did you get any info on that session at all - I was in sessions that weekend my self and didn't get to look anyone up.

-D

[MBishopSFX]

The PSO live sessions were engineered by Everett Porter of Polyhymnia. He was recording the concerts for release in '08 on PentaTone. Telarc supplied the core of the recording system for the concert recordings. Bill McKinney, Telarc Chief Technician, setup and ran the recording system for Everett.

The mics were DPA and Schoeps with Polyhymnia custom internal electronics and Polyhymnia custom mic preamps. The recording system was a Sonoma DSD workstation with EMM Labs converters. A Telarc-modified Studer 962 board was used for the mixes going to Sonoma. ATC SCM-50s and EMM Labs Switchman monitor controller were used for monitoring.

The Pittsburgh paper had reported last week that Telarc was doing the recording. That report was in error.

[DonM]

Micheal:

Thanks for the follow up. I was assuming the Pittsburgh Post Gazette was accurate about the date - your correction makes so much more sense.

Can you tell us any details about placement and production? I have been a subscriber to the PSO on and off for many years and have found Heinz Hall an 'interesting' room to say the least.

Again thanks for the clarification.

-D

[matyas]

Michael,
My thanks as well for the details. It promises to be a very interesting recording!

[audiogeek2000]

Originally Posted by matyas

I went to a performance of the Pittsburgh Symphony last night, and it turns out the performance was being recorded for PentaTone, for a surround-sound release on SACD of the complete Brahms symphonies (with Marek Janowski conducting) which will be coming out next year. I think PentaTone usually uses Polyhymnia as their recording company, so it was probably them.
Anyway, being the gearslut that I am, I paid special attention to how they miked the orchestra. It looked like they were using a combination of DPA and Schoeps. The main surround array looked like it consisted of a pair of DPAs on either side of the conductor, probably about 12 feet or so above stage level, with a pair of hall mics (also DPA) facing out into the hall (for surround pickup). There were also another set of mics (probably also DPA, but I couldn't really tell from where I was sitting), with spheres over the capsules, about six to eight feet out from the main pair which were either outriggers or spots for first violins (left hand side) and violas (right.) The spot mics for winds, timpani, and low strings mostly looked like Schoeps. As I mentioned, I think the recording is coming out sometime next year, and I think it will be a pretty interesting disc. Janowski's interpretation is very interesting, and if you never heard the Pittsburgh Symphony, they're really among the unsung heroes of American orchestras.

Matyas:

The main array consisted of five DPA 4006 microphones. The mics with the sound diffraction spheres were Neumann KM130s - spots for violin 1 (left) and the violas (right). The remainder of the mics were Schoeps, as you had noted.

All-in-all, it was a very smooth production with a wonderful orchestra.

[matyas]

Bill,
Thanks for the info - very interesting stuff. It's always cool to get technical details directly from the guys making the records!

[DonM]

Bill, Michael, et al:

Thanks for the info - best of luck on the project!

-D