Live orchestra, marching band mp3s. want to hear?

[foreverdawn]

Hey everyone, Ive trolled the gearsluts forum a bit but never posted.

I have a small mobile recording company in Orlando, Fl and I figured Ide post some mp3s of live orchestra and marching band recordings for your enjoyment and critique.

I dont have any pictures, but both of these were done with a 5 mic Decca tree (3 tripple matched sets and one stereo matched set) of oktava mk012s and spot mics of a groove tubes gt55 and an oktava mk319. The orchestra recording also had 1 additional rhode nt4? (the pencil condenser...i borrowed it)

The recording was done with 2 midi linked korg D32000s and mixed with cubase studio 4 on my pc.

Enjoy...the mp3s are on my site. mobileprorecording.com

If I get replys with further questions on how these were made, ill respond to them.

--Brian

[markr041]

You asked for a critique. I listened to orchestra 1, 2 , 3 only. I know these are compressed samples, and so maybe it's the processing, but:

1. The recordings have bloated bass, unnatural.

2. The solo instruments are way too prominent relative to the orchestra.

3. The sound is almost mono - certainly no stereo spread and no sense whatsoever of placement.

4. The reverb is too much, and sounds articificial.

5. The frequency response seems limited at the top end (which may be the compression and why the bass sounds bloated).

I hope that these compressed samples are not doing justice to the originals. And, the first violin soloist needs to work on intonation.

[guosh]

hi brian,

only managed to listen to your orchestra 1 clip, but first impressions are that there is too much reverb and the stereo image is rather narrow. also, the violin solo sounds clear but almost too clear relative to the rest of the orchestra - i'm guessing you had a spot for the violin?

i recently recorded the saint saens concerto too (albeit with piano), and i just felt that you are a little too close to the violin - the radiation of the frequencies don't sound constant, and a little harsh to me

regarding the 5 mic decca tree... did you do something similar to a surround bar setup? because panning would always be a problem without the surround software in this case. how are you panning this?

perhaps you could try pointing the L and R mics towards the ends of the stage and maybe either bringing the centre mic in a little or turning it down a few dB as it might be dominating at the moment and creating a mono effect

regarding gear, are your mk012s modded? i think its possible to do the dorsey mod on your own, and those seem to have a pretty good rep for clearing up the muddiness. i think corran has a couple of them, so maybe he could chime in?

all the best though, i'd be curious as to how you did this recording, as the decca tree should give a rather wide stereo image

[SynthLine09]

How'd you record the marching band? The drumline seems to be a bit too loud for the hornline. There are many other balance problems in the ensemble, but those definitely aren't your fault

[foreverdawn]

Originally Posted by markr041

You asked for a critique. I listened to orchestra 1, 2 , 3 only. I know these are compressed samples, and so maybe it's the processing, but:

1. The recordings have bloated bass, unnatural.

2. The solo instruments are way too prominent relative to the orchestra.

3. The sound is almost mono - certainly no stereo spread and no sense whatsoever of placement.

4. The reverb is too much, and sounds articificial.

5. The frequency response seems limited at the top end (which may be the compression and why the bass sounds bloated).

I hope that these compressed samples are not doing justice to the originals. And, the first violin soloist needs to work on intonation.

Many thanks for the critique! I seriously do appreciate the critique as im not looking for an ego boost...looking to get better. You don't know me, I don't know you so I really thank you for the time to listen to them and let me know.I shall take into consideration with the next one! Hah, and yes, I gave the teacher a copy uncompressed as well as the compressed ones on the site. I think the students may like the compressed ones more so I gave them the choice.

[foreverdawn]

Originally Posted by guosh

hi brian,

only managed to listen to your orchestra 1 clip, but first impressions are that there is too much reverb and the stereo image is rather narrow. also, the violin solo sounds clear but almost too clear relative to the rest of the orchestra - i'm guessing you had a spot for the violin?

i recently recorded the saint saens concerto too (albeit with piano), and i just felt that you are a little too close to the violin - the radiation of the frequencies don't sound constant, and a little harsh to me

regarding the 5 mic decca tree... did you do something similar to a surround bar setup? because panning would always be a problem without the surround software in this case. how are you panning this?

perhaps you could try pointing the L and R mics towards the ends of the stage and maybe either bringing the centre mic in a little or turning it down a few dB as it might be dominating at the moment and creating a mono effect

regarding gear, are your mk012s modded? i think its possible to do the dorsey mod on your own, and those seem to have a pretty good rep for clearing up the muddiness. i think corran has a couple of them, so maybe he could chime in?

all the best though, i'd be curious as to how you did this recording, as the decca tree should give a rather wide stereo image

Yeah, I thought It would provide a much wider spread as well.... however when I went to the rehersal, their setup was a bit different then the actual show which was recorded. The soloists were much further up and louder then the orchestra then expected... Didnt even use any of the volume from the soloist spot mic. That was defiantly disappointing. the decca tree was panned hard left, medium left, center, medium (45? i beleive) right, hard right. with the mics pointing like that respectively. Ill defiantly look up that mod for the mics...many thanks.

[foreverdawn]

Originally Posted by SynthLine09

How'd you record the marching band? The drumline seems to be a bit too loud for the hornline. There are many other balance problems in the ensemble, but those definitely aren't your fault

A 5 mic decca tree in front of the percussion pit, then behind them was the drumline, behind them was the hornline.

I had 2 spot mics on the horn line as well. probably should have had more, but the setup had to be super quick as it was just a high school rehearsal and time was limited.

[guosh]

Originally Posted by foreverdawn

Yeah, I thought It would provide a much wider spread as well.... however when I went to the rehersal, their setup was a bit different then the actual show which was recorded. The soloists were much further up and louder then the orchestra then expected... Didnt even use any of the volume from the soloist spot mic. That was defiantly disappointing. the decca tree was panned hard left, medium left, center, medium (45? i beleive) right, hard right. with the mics pointing like that respectively. Ill defiantly look up that mod for the mics...many thanks.

brian, just a thought though, whats your rationale behind a 5 mic decca tree? i believe there's a post on the forum detailing the reasons behind decca's creation of the tree that might help in your choices.

my guess is that the mid left and right mics are causing the buildup of the middle and creating imaging problems. how far apart are your mics? i believe that if there's that number of omni mics, they should be placed pretty far apart or with a baffle (have you seen iso mic?), with the center mic especially forward. any chance of a picture? if you've seen dpa's surround bar (you can check it out at their mic university DPA Microphones :: Home ) there are considerable distances between them. i think if you have those mics, you could attempt panning them for surround? though if you have subcardoids i find it works better as the L and R mics. just a thought though

personally if i had that choice of mics, i'd go for a safer choice of a decca tree with 2 omni outriggers for some width if you really want to use all 5 of your oktavas. or if you have the caps, you could try the decca tree as your main mics, along with an ortf pair in the middle of the orchestra to capture the detail of the winds

good luck!

[foreverdawn]

Originally Posted by guosh

brian, just a thought though, whats your rationale behind a 5 mic decca tree? i believe there's a post on the forum detailing the reasons behind decca's creation of the tree that might help in your choices.

my guess is that the mid left and right mics are causing the buildup of the middle and creating imaging problems. how far apart are your mics? i believe that if there's that number of omni mics, they should be placed pretty far apart or with a baffle (have you seen iso mic?), with the center mic especially forward. any chance of a picture? if you've seen dpa's surround bar (you can check it out at their mic university DPA Microphones :: Home ) there are considerable distances between them. i think if you have those mics, you could attempt panning them for surround? though if you have subcardoids i find it works better as the L and R mics. just a thought though

personally if i had that choice of mics, i'd go for a safer choice of a decca tree with 2 omni outriggers for some width if you really want to use all 5 of your oktavas. or if you have the caps, you could try the decca tree as your main mics, along with an ortf pair in the middle of the orchestra to capture the detail of the winds

good luck!

Hah, I suppose my rationale was that "it seemed to work well/get a good spread for the marching band..." So I gave it a try with this. perhaps I should have tried muting the 2 furthest mics and panning the mid center mics hard left and right. I wish I had a picture as well :(. Ill check out that bar.