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Mic Array for Soundmirror/Pittsburg Sym

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Posted on May 22, 2020 at 08:05:58
oldmkvi
Audiophile

Posts: 10580
Joined: April 12, 2002



Nobody does Stereo Mic Only, or 2 mics, for Orch anymore that I know of.
There's the Pittsburg Respighi, and a Mahler 5, don't know who , both from years ago that used only 2 or Stereo Mics, but they are CD, maybe no Hi-Res available on those.
Utah Prokofiev got great reviews sonically, that was Reference or maybe Soundmirror.
Minimal-Micing for Moderns.
Reference Rec had at least 15 mics on SF Ballet Recordings, and Digital-Delay to increase Ambience.
Still sounded good.
Prof Johnson's First Orch recording was The Tempest, with the Ballet Orch, late 70's or early 80's.
He use a Reel to Reel Deck he built, and a Stereo Mic he also built.
That sounded good too.
But nobody is doing that these days.
Including him.
Unless someone here knows of a recent 2 Mic recordings...
I wish there was Recording Info available on All Orch Recordings, Ala Telarc.
They listed Cables, Mixing Board, Mics, etc, interesting stuff.

 

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RE: Mic Array for Soundmirror/Pittsburg Sym, posted on May 22, 2020 at 09:49:13
Kal Rubinson
Reviewer

Posts: 12435
Location: New York
Joined: June 5, 2002
 They use 5 mics because they are making a 5 channel recording. How they are making the stereo tracks is undefined. It could be the pure 2 mic feed or a mix.

Nobody does Stereo Mic Only, or 2 mics, for Orch anymore that I know of.
I believe that Jared Sacks does use his two L/R mics set up for stereo only. Then he adds the additional ones for multichannel.

There's the Pittsburg Respighi, and a Mahler 5, don't know who , both from years ago that used only 2 or Stereo Mics, but they are CD, maybe no Hi-Res available on those.
Exton?

Utah Prokofiev got great reviews sonically, that was Reference or maybe Soundmirror.
Both. The label is Reference but the recording team was SoundMirror. Phenomenal in multichannel.

 

Heinz Hall, posted on May 22, 2020 at 10:50:28
pbarach
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Posts: 3306
Location: Ohio
Joined: June 22, 2008
 A recent article in the newest Gramophone or BBC Music Magazine (can't recall which) notes that the sound in Heinz Hall is most blended at the top of the balcony. I really liked the acoustics when I sat upstairs for a Honeck-led Mahler 2 a few years ago. I believe it was recorded for SACD at that time, but it was never released. The hall is scheduled for a renovation in the near future.

Before Heinz Hall was renovated from a movie theater into a concert hall several decades ago, the Pittsburgh Symphony played some of its concerts in Carnegie Music Hall, which is IMO one of the most beautiful old-style concert halls in the country. No comment on the acoustics, since the only music I heard there was a small chamber group.

 

Is your graphics text in reference to a specific recording?, posted on May 22, 2020 at 11:14:26
Chris from Lafayette
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Posts: 26423
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Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012
 Kal is right that the five omni DPA 4006's would be for recordings of the MCh persuasion! ;-)

I KNOW that SoundMIrror could lose the spot microphones, and their recordings could sound even better! How do I know? Because that's the way that the Nishimura label (a German company, despite its name) recorded their DVD-Audio albums in the early 2000's. They used five ominis for their recordings - no spot microphones. At their best, they shame other recordings - however, there's a greater potential for error in placement with this type of technique, and even a couple of Nishimura recordings kind of misfired. And with this simple kind of microphone technique, there's not much you can do to correct problems ex post facto.

(BTW, Kal's suspicions about Exton are also correct: they produced a "single point" stereo recording of the Mahler First with Inbal and the CzPO. I was excited to get the stereo only SACD, but, in the end was disappointed. Inbal was crooning up a storm through the whole piece, and, even aside from that, the microphone placement didn't sound quite right to me anyway. My "review" of that recording (based on posts which originally appeared here on Audio Asylum) is still on Amazon. I think Exton might have produced other "single point" stereo recordings too, but I can't remember which ones they were offhand. OTOH, Exton recorded the Brahms symphonies with Honeck and the PSO - this preceded the contract with SoundMirror/Reference - and I know that on at least a couple of those recordings, Exton used 15 or 16 microphones.)

I still say to SoundMIrror: live dangerously! Take a chance! Lose those spot microphones!

 

Carnegie Hall, posted on May 22, 2020 at 11:55:53
Mel
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Posts: 2993
Location: New York City Area
Joined: February 21, 2001
 It has been written many times that the best seats in New York's Carnegie Hall are in the center of the uppermost balcony. Apparently the sound is focused to there by the rounded ceiling in front of the proscenium. In fact a proscenium hall, like Carnegie, with so many curved surfaces does a lot of focusing of the sound to specific locations, implying dead spots in others. A much overrated hall in MNSHO. They should have torn it down when they had the chance and replace it with one of the newer styled halls as in Berlin, Hamburg and Paris where the distribution of good sound is far more even.

 

"Berlin, Hamburg and Paris". . . LA. . . Helsinki [nt] ;-), posted on May 22, 2020 at 11:58:46
Chris from Lafayette
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  Since: February 6, 2012

 

RE: Mic Array for Soundmirror/Pittsburg Sym, posted on May 22, 2020 at 12:15:37
oldmkvi
Audiophile

Posts: 10580
Joined: April 12, 2002
 Thanks for the clarification.
They also used Spot Mics, which always increase the total, sometimes by a lot.

 

RE: Mic Array for Soundmirror/Pittsburg Sym, posted on May 22, 2020 at 12:38:58
Kal Rubinson
Reviewer

Posts: 12435
Location: New York
Joined: June 5, 2002
 Yeah but it depends on how they are used.

 

RE: Heinz Hall, posted on May 22, 2020 at 12:44:51
Todd Krieger
Audiophile

Posts: 37333
Location: SW United States
Joined: November 2, 2000



Place looks like a "miniature Royal Albert Hall".........

 

I emailed Ch Classics., posted on May 22, 2020 at 12:45:44
oldmkvi
Audiophile

Posts: 10580
Joined: April 12, 2002
 I saw two Ch Classics Videos, with Mics all over the place, way more than 10.
But could easily be for Surround.
I wonder if I'll hear back...

 

It costs too much to take a chance these days., posted on May 22, 2020 at 12:49:23
oldmkvi
Audiophile

Posts: 10580
Joined: April 12, 2002
 Days of recording down the drain.
I don't know if there aren't too many variables to compare different recordings by different companies.
It's not like Soundmirror doesn't know what they are doing!

 

Well, waddaya know?, posted on May 22, 2020 at 13:13:40
oldmkvi
Audiophile

Posts: 10580
Joined: April 12, 2002



This from Jared Sacks.
Of course, Soundmirror may be different.
Probably is.

 

It's not like Soundmirror doesn't know what they are doing!, posted on May 22, 2020 at 13:53:35
Kal Rubinson
Reviewer

Posts: 12435
Location: New York
Joined: June 5, 2002
 Right. Their MCH are among the best.

 

Yes - that's right, but. . . , posted on May 22, 2020 at 16:21:16
Chris from Lafayette
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  Since: February 6, 2012
 . . . I still wish that some company would be brave enough to try it.

And you're right that SoundMirror recordings can sound pretty good of course. But, in general, I think that Jared over at Channel Classics does a better job of concealing the use of spot microphones. There are also some Chandos and BIS recordings which I think very highly of in terms of their "art which conceals the art" microphone placements. And of course there's the non-SoundMirror arm of Reference Recordings (i.e., the Keith Johnson engineered stuff) which I think is more highly rated (by critics, audiophiles and regular listeners) than the SoundMirror arm is.

 

Yes - That's exactly what he said when we all met him. . . , posted on May 22, 2020 at 16:28:51
Chris from Lafayette
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  Since: February 6, 2012
 . . . at Robert C. Lang's house a decade ago. You were there - although did you possibly arrive late? (I can't remember.) And then he reiterated his recording philosophy again when he was over at my house a couple of years later (and was the object of Ms. CfL's complaints about too much editing in recordings these days - LOL! No wonder he's never paid me a visit since then!). ;-)

 

And of course..................................... . . , posted on May 22, 2020 at 17:14:32
Kal Rubinson
Reviewer

Posts: 12435
Location: New York
Joined: June 5, 2002
 "And of course there's the non-SoundMirror arm of Reference Recordings (i.e., the Keith Johnson engineered stuff) which I think is more highly rated (by critics, audiophiles and regular listeners) than the SoundMirror arm is."

Not when it comes to multichannel, imho.

 

That's interesting [nt] ;-), posted on May 23, 2020 at 01:28:34
Chris from Lafayette
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Posts: 26423
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012

 

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