A Question to Bruce Swedien about classical recordings

[teleric]

hi everyone and Bruce,

I want to ask a question about your experience with classical recordings. I want to specialize in this field and wonder i you have any advice on how to do it well.
For exemple, what do you prefer for the main couple? decca, A-B, blumlein? Also, what is your approach of reinforcement miking in the case of chamber or symphonic orchestras? Is there mics that you particularly like for this kind of close miking? Could you tell us about the right distance from the instrument and from the floor (in france, we tend to place the proximity mikes high and not closer than a 0.7m)? And as to the signal path for proximity microphones, do you use EQ, compressor? or do you like to obtain a good balance and not touch it thru the piece? One last question concerning all musical styles: do you often ride the fader during recording or only when mixing? Do you use fader automation on most instruments or mostly on effects and vocals?

Thanks a lot for being on a this forum. Gives me a lot to (re)think

Eric

[Bruce Swedien]

Originally Posted by teleric

hi everyone and Bruce,

I want to ask a question about your experience with classical recordings. I want to specialize in this field and wonder i you have any advice on how to do it well.
For exemple, what do you prefer for the main couple? decca, A-B, blumlein? Also, what is your approach of reinforcement miking in the case of chamber or symphonic orchestras? Is there mics that you particularly like for this kind of close miking? Could you tell us about the right distance from the instrument and from the floor (in france, we tend to place the proximity mikes high and not closer than a 0.7m)? And as to the signal path for proximity microphones, do you use EQ, compressor? or do you like to obtain a good balance and not touch it thru the piece? One last question concerning all musical styles: do you often ride the fader during recording or only when mixing? Do you use fader automation on most instruments or mostly on effects and vocals?

Thanks a lot for being on a this forum. Gives me a lot to (re)think

Eric

Eric......

Geat question!...

In 1957, Bea and I were living in the Chicago suberb of Wheeling, just after having moved from Minneapolis. It was almost a year before I was to go to work for my mentor, ‘Milton T, ‘Bill’ Putnam at Universal Studios in Chicago. Bill had completed construction of big, beautiful Studio ‘A’, at Universal. That fantastic large-scale music studio was a technical and acoustic masterpeice! He told me that when he finished Studio ‘B’ the following year, I would have my job at Universal. In typical Bill Putnam fashion, Bill had helped with my moving expenses, and helped arrange for my job at RCA Victor. In the meantime, this eager, young transplant from the hinterlands of Minnesota, was very happily busy, working for RCA Victor Studios.(then located on Chicago’s Navy Pier)

While at RCA, I got to work on some very exciting projects.(Not necessarily always at the RCA studios on Navy Pier). For instance, I assisted in the recording of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dr. Fritz Reiner. Actually, when we recorded the CSO it was a bit of a team effort. The man in charge of engineering, and in truth, the guy who really did the recording, was Lewis Layton, a wonderful, classical music engineer at RCA Victor. He had a very generous spirit and freely helped me learn my craft. The producer on these sessions was Richard Mohr, another very kind and generous music man.

We recorded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue. Fritz Reiner was the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1953-1963. He built the CSO into the world-class orchestra that it remains today. I worked at RCA with the orchestra in 1957 and 1958.

Working, watching and learning on those sessions, I remember thinking to myself, “This is why I left Minnesota!”

One recording session, or series of sessions that really stands out in my mind was the Modest Moussorgsky, (Maurice Ravel Orchestration) “Pictures at an Exhibition” that we recorded with the CSO in 1957.

I was particularily impressed by the phenomenal trumpet soloist, Adolph ‘Bud’ Herseth. ‘Bud’ played those trumpet solos on “Pictures” with fantastic skill. The first day we worked on “Pictures”, when we took a break, I went out on the stage and talked to Bud. What a great guy. I found out that he was also from Minnesota. A tiny, little town called, Bertha Minnesota, as I recall. Not too far from Cokato Minnesota, where my family lived. What a small world. Instantly I knew that Bud was my kind of guy. He told me of his desire to play his solos, "going beyond the notes." Made sense to me. I felt the same way about what I do. I worked with Bud a few times doing sessions at Universal. There were other incredible trumpet players that did most of the studio work in Chicago at that time. Bud’s place was with the CSO. ‘Bud’ recently retired after 53 years as principal trumpet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

I was really fortunate because Dr. Reiner appeared to be quite interested in the recording process. I don’t really remember that Dr. Reiner truly loved the recording process, but he certainly did appreciate it’s value... Those incredible recordings that I was involved in in 1957 and 1958 are still considered by many to be among the first truly audiophile recordings.

We would edit the Chicago Orchestra tapes bar by bar, sometimes note by note, until it was as perfect as we thought we could make it. One lasting impression of that period of time for me is, that Dr. Reiner made me a part of his innovative, new, “INCENTIVE” program.... That remarkable, new incentive program was: "One mistake and you’re through!!!". Under Fritz Reiner’s remarkable new incentive program, I learned to edit analogue magnetic tape accurately, quickly and above all musically. I'll never forget him. What fantastic musical and technical experiences! At that time we recorded the CSO on two, three-track 1/2 inch Ampex tape machines. One tape machine recorded the master tape, the other a back-up, or safety master tape. This 20 year old kid from Minneapolis had never seen anything so high-tech in his life before!

I met and worked with many fantastic musicians that were with the CSO. To name a few that stand out in my memory.... Ray Still, principal oboe, Arnold Jacobs, principal tuba. Dale Clevenger, principal French Horn and recording soloist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (since February 1966). Dale is a well-known Chicago studio musician. I got to work with Frank Miller, not only with the CSO but in the studio, as well. Frank, at that time, was called the greatest living orchestral cellist.

My experiences recording for RCA Victor in beautiful, fantastic-sounding, Orchestra Hall extended to musical groups other than the CSO. One project that stands out in my memory is recording Dick Schory's “New Percussion Ensemble” in Orchestra Hall. We recorded an album entitled "Music for Bang Baaroom and Harp!” It was, of course, all percussion.

This project gave me a real insight into the incredible percussion players working in the Chicago recording scene at that time. We recorded titles like... “National Emblem March”, “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” and the memorable “Duel on the Skins”.(Hmmm...) Many others as well. It was great fun.

The reviews said, “Schory's New Percussion Ensemble is allowed to roam freely in Chicago's Orchestra Hall. This recording captured Schory and his band of lunatics hitting everything but the kitchen sink.” (The reviewers must have missed something, because I distinctly remember setting up a microphone on a kitchen sink!) The critics said the “New Percussion Ensemble” was the "Biggest Battery of Percussion West of Cape Canaveral"! It was released in 1959 on the RCA label.

Some of the outstanding Chicago Percussion players were Bobby Christian, Bob Westberg and Frank Rullo. In the Chicago studios Bobby Christian was called “Mr. Percussion”. He was a mainstay of Dick Schory's percussion ensemble.

I found out that my Music Recording Personality had one distinct flaw in it....

Perhaps the bottom line for me, is that there's always been something absolutely marvelous about simply messing around with things musical, electronic and mechanical. To this day I still spend many happy hours in my beautiful studio at home installing and checking out some new, or old, piece of equipment or recording gear. I am now, always have been, and always will be, a fanatic about details in my endeavors.

I really love a challenge in my life. In my work, whether it is a musical or a technical challenge, if things become too easy I get bored and start yawning and looking around for something more interesting to do.

When I am working on a project, I love to sit and think of combinations of recording techniques, or recording styles, that I can use. In other words, I love to take a piece of music, and with it, create a recorded sound-field, or sonic image, that could not possibly occur in a natural acoustic environment.

This is not quite as simple, for me anyway, as it appears at first, because, at the same time, it has always been extremely important to me to have a bit of stark reality of sound, buried somewhere in my work for the ear to relate to. To ground the ear, so to speak. In other words, a patch of familiar blue sky in one corner of my recording canvas.

By the same token, I think it is of paramount importance to realize, that to do truly unique work, we cannot merely, helter-skelter, throw sounds and recording techniques together on a piece of tape and come up with a sound that makes people remember a recording for a long time, and, equally important, to want to hear it over and over again.

Bruce Swedien

[2xBassist]

That recording of the CSO and the Ravel Orchestration is my favorite classical recording of all time! It's exciting to hear that you had a part in that.

Also your continued discussion of the importance of being a musician and an engineer in your book, and online has been inspirational. I'm a high school orchestra director, jazz bassist, and freelance engineer, and find that they are absolutely inter-related in my life.

thanks Mr. Swedien,

John Mesoloras
Madison,WI
(enjoying life and music on the Midwest Coast)

[klaukholm]

The trumpet sound on "Pictures" is one of the most sucessful trumpet recordings I have heard, of course largely due to Bud.

Can you remember what the setup was micwise?
I understand you had a low mic count for those sessions.