Orchestral recording at Capitol A yesterday... with Frank Sinatra’s 47!

[JohnRodd]

Hello all.... I thought some of you might be interested to hear about my awesome film scoring session yesterday at Capitol A in Hollywood. We recorded 24 cues (different pieces of music) in a double session. A double (for those that don’t know) is 2 x three hour sessions, with a one hour dinner break.... but with the 6 x ten minute breaks for the musicians, we actually had only FIVE hours to record almost 45 minutes of music total! (it is funny when I tell some of my rock recording engineering pals about what we accomplish in a very short amount of time... and I see shocked expressions)

We were 17 vlns, 6 vla, 4 celli, 2 basses, and in the second session we added two flutes and an oboe. The LA union musicians are completely awesome, and as usual they totally rocked. Keep in mind that these musicians are SIGHT READING the music and they have never seen it before. We would call up a cue, we would record the rehearsal, (as they sight read it for the first time) and it would be literally note perfect every time. We’d do one or two other takes with a few musical adjustments, and by then it would be perfect. Then we’d move on! The music was all over the map - some of it was very fast, huge dynamics, complicated meter and tempo changes... expressive, beautiful solos in various sections.... and they didn’t batt an eyelash. Unbelievable.

The Decca tree config Neumann M149's in omni for the room were great as always. They work really well in that room with orchestras. They just suck up all the sound with incredible detail.

As usual I went for newer, more reliable and consistent sounding mics as spots. Ironically one of the modern mics became slightly noisy after a while! I started out with two of the 47 'recreations' on basses - the Neumann M147. As it turned out they only had two M147's and re-seating everything didn't fix it ......... so I asked if it could be swapped out for a good sounding vintage 47. They asked me "would you like Frank's?" and I said SURE! So we used Frank Sinatra's personal 47! The very one! How cool is that!? The two basses (and players) sounded different - so it won't be a fair balanced comparison when I listen and compare as I do the music mix this week.... but it will be fun to listen to in the mix anyway. In the heat of battle I did a quick solo to see how they compared, and they were in the same ballpark, generally speaking.

I had a fantastic staff booth assistant engineer (Aaron), two great staff floor assistants, (Rick and James) and my great ProTools op / music editor. (Greg) Nice to be well taken care of! The composer George wrote a beautiful score, and it was really well orchestrated, and as I said before the musicians played the heck out of it... and I was in Capitol A surrounded by awesome gear and mics etc.... so it made my job of making it sound huge yet present somewhat easier.

As soon as the session started I was really pleased that I had the levels and gain structure almost perfectly set by ear during the last few minutes before the session started. It is fun to be able to do that trick. I used my eight Millennia HV-3D pres on the main mics. 16 mics total.

anyway... I just wanted to post the story of my fun day yesterday.... and tell the tale of Frank Sinatra’s 47 resurfacing during my session!

cheers!

John

[Kyle Ashley]

Cool story...thanks for sharing!

[Remoteness]

Awesome.

Do you have any photos from the session you want to share?

[Empty Planet]

Great story. Thanks. I saw Frank in concert when he was 77, and he absolutely knocked my fukkin socks off.

[vernier]

Glad to here studio-A is still there ..I heard it got changed into two smaller rooms ...is it still large, like back in the day?

[djui5]

Originally Posted by JohnRodd

so I asked if it could be swapped out for a good sounding vintage 47. They asked me "would you like Frank's?" and I said SURE! So we used Frank Sinatra's personal 47! The very one! How cool is that!?
cheers!

John

Whoa! What an honor

[roxxon]

Way cool!

[Jamz]

Wow, what a memory you created. Priceless.
Beautiful!

[LMaudio]

John
Did you get to use the famous reverb chamber? If so, what can you tell us about it?
And regarding Frank's '47 - do you know if it is stored in a special way when not being used?

Lou

[JohnRodd]

Originally Posted by LMaudio

John
Did you get to use the famous reverb chamber? If so, what can you tell us about it?
And regarding Frank's '47 - do you know if it is stored in a special way when not being used?

Lou

Heya Lou

I have used a chamber at Capitol many times before - but I decided to not use it for this project. They have a number of chambers there - each with their own unique sound. They are located under the parking lot.

The book 'Temples of Sound' has a bunch of good Capitol info in it.

When the guys went to get Frank's 47 there were two people and a key... and some very careful handling. That is all I know....

[JohnRodd]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

Awesome.

Do you have any photos from the session you want to share?

I'll upload a few in a while....

[Jules]

Originally Posted by JohnRodd

When the guys went to get Frank's 47 there were two people and a key... and some very careful handling. That is all I know....

That sounds like something out of 'Hunt for the Red October" or 'Doctor Strangelove'

[themaidsroom]

great day......

i have spent many years obsessed with sinatra - fantastic to use that mic in that
room in that building (frank liked to say that he built that building)
new jersey's itialian-american shamanic wonder...........
i think when that building was built was the apex of many, many crafts........



be well



- jack

[John Hedger]

Originally Posted by JohnRodd

The LA union musicians are completely awesome, and as usual they totally rocked. Keep in mind that these musicians are SIGHT READING the music and they have never seen it before. We would call up a cue, we would record the rehearsal, (as they sight read it for the first time) and it would be literally note perfect every time. We?d do one or two other takes with a few musical adjustments, and by then it would be perfect. Then we?d move on! The music was all over the map - some of it was very fast, huge dynamics, complicated meter and tempo changes... expressive, beautiful solos in various sections.... and they didn?t batt an eyelash. Unbelievable.

...and they probably looked extremely bored and unchallenged! Man, you have to admire reading skills like that. That's amazing really. Thanks John for sharing all the recording info as well. There's alot of cool history in that studio.

JHedger

[JohnRodd]

Hello all

There is now a short quicktime movie up at http://myspace.com/johnrodd of one of the cues, with a behind the scenes video. This way you can see Capitol A in action! I'm the serious looking guy in the blue shirt behind the Neve VR

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by JohnRodd

Hello all

There is now a short quicktime movie up at http://myspace.com/johnrodd of one of the cues, with a behind the scenes video. This way you can see Capitol A in action! I'm the serious looking guy in the blue shirt behind the Neve VR

Hey there is my friend Aaron Walk sitting right next to you. Tell him I said hi and I owe him a lunch the next time your there. Sounds great (As always) and thanks for the great video.

Michael Greene

[TSchlum]

John, Thank you for your generous post!

It is our job to have successful sessions and that’s reward enough. But to have a so public acknowledgment, from our client, means a lot.

I’ll make sure everyone at the studios see this.

Tom Schlum
Director of Technology
Capitol Studios & Mastering

[Karl Jackson]

Great post! Thanks so much for sharing this. I've got to admit being addicted to ScoringSessions.com: The Imagery of Music. Scoring Session Photography, News and More!, but hearing about it direct from the desk takes my appreciation to a whole new level.

kj

[Roland]

Hi John,

Just went to your myspace site and had a listen to your snippet there. Good players, particularly liked the principal horn, loved the warm expansive sound, your client should be delighted. What reverb did you use?

Regards



Roland

[Ashermusic]

I recorded an NBC M.O.W. in the late 90's there that I composed, "Fugitive Nights." Just standing on that podium to conduct there, knowing the giants that preceded me, was a thrill.

BTW, is Paula Salvatore still working there? She is incredibly helpful.