Marco Granados at Old Church, Portland, OR - samples

[jnorman]

I recently had the opportunity to record a concert by Marco Granados (flute) and Jovino Neto (piano) at the Old Church (1882, wooden Gothic) in Portland, Oregon. Marco is known as "sunflute" here on GS and other forums.

I ran two sets of mics - an ORTF pair of KM140s>lexicon U42s>IBM T61 running Reaper, and a spaced pair of DPA 4061s>Forsell pres>Forsell AD>SD 702. Wehad planned to also run marco's pair of Crowley and Tripp ribbons but did not have enough setup time to include them.

It was a well attended concert and the venue had a very nice acoustic. Mics were set at stage lip about 10 feet out from Marco and perhaps 15 feet out from the piano.

Attached are some sample clips for your consideration and comments.

first are clips from one of the flute/piano duos - just the km140s, just the 4061s, and a blend of the two mics (about 80% 140s and 20% 4061s).

second are clips from one of marco's solo pieces - again, just the 140s, just the 4061s, and then a blend of the two pairs (same as above).

i would like to hear comments on whether you prefer the km140s alone, the 4061s alone, or the blend of the two pairs of mics.

[sunflute]

Thank you so much James.......

Here's a youtube video of the same program where I played the Bach at the Seattle Flute Fair.



There I was able to use the Crowley & Tripp microphones through the Forssell SMP-2 and MADC-2 Converter.

I edited the video and audio in Sony Vegas.
Peace

[didier.brest]

I prefer the K140-only takes. The location of the flute becomes fuzzy with the 4061s. Very nice samples anyway. Congrats to the recordist and to the flutist.thumbsup

[CGBrian.M]

I much preferred the DPA 4061's on their own. The sound was just much more natural, transparent, open, and live. The acoustic sounds likes it was quite good, and after listening to both, the DPA's, of course, bring out the quality of the space. I felt like the KM140's added to much color, and seemed to compress the decay of notes-like it rounded off the sustain.

Honestly, I thought the blended versions just sounded unnatural and weird, although I can't articulate why. Sorta manufactured...

Kudos to both performers and AE.

Brian

P.S. I surprisingly liked the video sound with the Crowley & Tripp (I'm really not a huge fan of ribbon mics).

[jnorman]

marco - i too like the sound of the ribbon pair. you did a very nice job of mastering the audio.

[boojum]

Thanks for the posts, Jim and you, too, Marco. I have to recuse myself from the judging because of bias. They are all lovely.

[sunflute]

Originally Posted by boojum

Thanks for the posts, Jim and you, too, Marcos. I have to recuse myself from the judging because of bias. They are all lovely.

Bias towards a specific kind of Mic?

Thanks

[sunflute]

Originally Posted by jnorman

marco - i too like the sound of the ribbon pair. you did a very nice job of mastering the audio.

James, believe it or not all I did was Normalize and a put a mastering limiter in Samplitude. no EQ.

It's the sound of the room. I didn't feel it needed extra reverb.

I really like these mics.

Peace.

[bobkeiser@ieee.o]

Marco,

Wonderful playing!

I'm sure you'd sound great on any make & model flute...but which one are you playing here?

Thanks!

[sunflute]

Thank you, I play a flute made by Miguel Arista from Boston.

[Empiria]

I like the Neumann colour more than DPA's naturality (whatever it means). Blending both pairs does not make the sound better. Would be nice to have a spot on the piano.

Good job jnorman and sunflute!

[mixedupsteve]

Great job to both of you.
I like the 140s too. The mixture sounds like a phase issue or maybe just too much of the space. Those ribbons sound good to me too. Different but I like them.

[amfortas2006]

I like the 4061-s alone (especially in the piano/flute samples). Of course, they are a bit noisy. The mix of both pairs sounds a bit fuzzy to me..

Are all the mics at the same distance? What's the distance from the duo, and what's the AB spacing?

[jnorman]

amf - all 4 mics were mounted on the same stand, so yes, distance to players was the same for both pairs. AB spacing was about 20". distance to players was about 10 feet, in a very nice old church with full audience.

[amfortas2006]

Thanks for the info j

did you ever try some noise reduction on those 4061-s?
I did with my 4063-s, and I think it brings more then it takes away

Some will maybe not agree, but I don't mind mild to moderate methods of reducing it

[jnorman]

amfortas - i run reaper and have used one of its standard effects, "reafir" noise reduction, on several mixes. it can be very effective at removing extraneous noises and background HVAC. it can add digital artifacts if not used moderately, but i have liked it on several live performance recordings.