Mini Gig Report: String Quartet at a Wedding

[RobAnderson]

Thought some of you might get a kick out of this.

A friend of mine who is a composer was commissioned to write a piece for his friends' wedding. He brought me in to record the performance at the ceremony.

Due to the tight quarters and for sight-line purposes, I elected to use an Ultra Clamp to hold the array rather than a stand. Since the mic's had to be much closer than would normally be ideal, I went with Sennheiser 8020's in a (very) small AB spacing.

Overall it worked out well, excepting that the place was rather noisy and the position of the quartet (under a stair landing) made for less-than-ideal acoustics.

[Celloman]

I know the first violinist and she is an excellent player. Nice mic mount!

[boojum]

Bad spot! Only a phone booth would have been worse. You are a brave man.

[Teddy Ray]

Interesting use of API on Strings.. not something talked about here often

[ionian]

Ah - Tribeca Rooftop! I've played there tons o' times. And you know how many times I hit my head under those stairs? Almost every time...


Frank

[ionian]

Originally Posted by boojum

Bad spot! Only a phone booth would have been worse. You are a brave man.

Speaking of bad spot - those stairs are completely lit on each step from top to bottom with a barrage of florescent lights. I've worked there with a lot of bands and it's always an interesting night in terms of trying to get those stairs to NOT wreak havoc with the sound system on an almost constant basis.

I use a JBL Eon for my keyboard monitor and no matter what - ground lifts, filters, whatever can get the Eon from buzzing like an angry swarm of bees. Those stairs are from hell. And they make ALL the musicians and bands set up under the stairs.

Frank

[medearis]

Seems like it'd be a great spot! At least the colors are nice!
I've never been there, obviously, but it seems like it'd be fun to play regardless of where you are forced into ploppin' down.

How's that Tascam treating you? Been eyeing it for a while now.
Just the next thing on that list o' shit....

[RobAnderson]

Speaking of bad spot - those stairs are completely lit on each step from top to bottom with a barrage of florescent lights. I've worked there with a lot of bands and it's always an interesting night in terms of trying to get those stairs to NOT wreak havoc with the sound system on an almost constant basis.

That whole room was a giant hum-fest - all of the lights just buzzing and humming away. Add to that the extremely loud rumble of the air conditioning (which was at times just as loud as the string quartet!)...

I know the first violinist and she is an excellent player.

Yes she is! I have recorded her a couple of times before with Ensemble ACJW, most recently was about two weeks ago a Le Poisson Rouge (but that's another story). All of the players were quite good - especially considering the circumstances.

How's that Tascam treating you? Been eyeing it for a while now.

That one in the picture is the HD-P2. It's a decent box. I have a couple of minor gripes with it but overall it has done the job pretty well for me on 2-Track recordings.

There was no time to set up for multi-tracking, else I might have gone with the DR-680. I really like that box. I did a small multi-track session a couple of weeks ago in someone's living room with that box and it came out surprisingly well.

Interesting use of API on Strings.. not something talked about here often

I love the sound of the combination of API with Schoeps. I use this all the time on chamber music gigs.

That API lives in my suitcase rig (under all of that other stuff - it's there I swear it) - primarily because it is a 4x2 mixer which makes it useful for small live to 2-Track stuff. Used with the DR-680, I have the best of both worlds.