built my studio for classical music

[fafalio]

hello to everybody friends! it is my first incoming here!
i want to start make classical music recording.
i'll have for the moment record overall small ensemble or piano/classical singer duo.
i have made an idea listening a lot of people.
1) mic shoeps or DPA?
2) pre millennia or dav electronics or others?
3)converters...i don t know. which are the more NEUTRAL without sell my house? mytek?
i need that all my audio Chain be more NEUTRAL WITHOUT COLORATIONS as possible.
i see a lot of people here use a 2 channel ADA convert of high quality. but in this way you have to record each instruments with separate session? before the violin, the the viola and so on? is it not frustating? or is there another use of it?
thanks Alessandro.

[jnorman]

i do exactly that kind of work in my small studio (17x23x8). i have owned pairs of both schoeps cmc64s and DPA 4006s and DPA 4011s - all are good choices, with the 4011s in ORTF being my favorites. i also really like the AKG C480s and AT4051s for almost any kind of acoustic sources. you can also do well with a blumlein pair of good ribbons, like royer r-121s IF you have some high gain preamps (the little sonosax pres were recommended to me by dave royer.)

the millennia media HV3 pres are pretty much industry standard for classical material (and john lagrou is surely one of the best people i have ever dealt with in the audio industry), but there are lots of good pres out there these days.

many people prefer using a simple ORTF pair to capture small ensemble music in both studio and remote locations, and sometimes that is the best choice, but there are tradeoffs. probably the best method is to use both a nice main stereo pair about 6-8 feet out from the group, in conjunction with spot mics about 3-4 feet out on each instrument (remembering to keep the spots somewhat equidistant from each instrument so that one instrument does not stand out as being "closer" than the others in the mix - you can run into that problem when you close mic a piano (a foot or so above the hammers, for example) along with a mic on a solo instrument that is 3-4 feet out. this makes the piano "in your face" with the solo instrument sounding like it is behind the piano.

IMO, the biggest challenge you may face is getting an appropriate and realistic sounding reverb for your recordings. in any small studio, you are usually facing inadequate or poor natural ambience, and it is ofetn best to maintain a relatively dead sounding room through acoustic treatment and diffusion, and adding ambience during post. a high quality reverb becomes paramount to making natural sounding recordings. (along with learning to use said reverb...)

[Sound Sorcerer]

Hi Alessandro,
I worked at the conservatory of Music in México City for seven years recording classical & contemporary music. The in-house equipment was not necessary the best but a lot of people showed up to record there because of the great acoustics of the Concert Hall. I do remember someone bringing in a Millennia but also others like, Manley, GML, Universal Audio & sometimes even a Focusrite Red One. Some other people liked to bring their own Revox or Neve consoles; but almost everyone trusted Apogee for AD conversion.
On the microphone side big capsule condenser microphones where mostly preferred to record orchestras, pianos, string quartets, brass ensembles & percussions. At that time the Conservatory owned a couple of Shoeps matched pairs mics, a few AKG's 414's TLII & C414BULS pairs, and a bunch of other dynamic & condenser mics for sound reinforcement; but people did came in with their own mics like the Manley's Gold Reference Mic, Neumann's U87, TLM 49, TLM103, KM184; AKG's C12VR, Sennheiser MKH 30, 40 & 50, DPA 4011, 4012; Erthworks QTC50, Calrec Mk IV Soundfield mic & preamp, etc.
As you know there's more gear than what one can actually afford, so maybe a good startup would be at least a nice mic matched pair & preamps... Honestly you cant go wrong with the Shoeps, but Sennheiser just launched the new MKH8000 series which lots of people are raving about...

[ogamik]

Hi Alesandro,

For me Millennia is a really good pre, but the more transparent I know is Crookwood.
Apogge converter are good but not tansparent, try lynx aurora. The best are Genex and Prism.
I have DPA 4006TL, 4007, 414LTD and Neumann M149 all matched pair, the most versatile are for me is the M149 but if you want to work in AB or Decca the 4006TL are perfect.

[Sound Sorcerer]

Originally Posted by ogamik

For me Millennia is a really good pre, but the more transparent I know is Crookwood.
Apogge converter are good but not tansparent, try lynx aurora.

Here's a comparison between Apogee & Lynx...

[Omicron_9]

Greetings.

I do all classical chamber recording in my studio. Just a suggestion, and since you asked: don't limit your mic choices to only Schoeps or DPA. Gefels get used on every session in my studio; you owe it to yourself and your recordings to try these. All through Millennia pres.

Regards,
-0.9

[mikesilence]

Best for classical recordings should be Stagetec Truematch:
Stage Tec Entwicklungsgesellschaft für professionelle Audiotechnik mbH Berlin: TrueMatch RMC


All the best,

Mike