TromboneChat

Hi all,

interesting source for microphone positioning for trombone and other instruments:
http://soundmedia.jp/nuaudk/

How interesting!

The dry sound from the mic behind the Horn player resembles the god-awful Horn sound that was all over studio commercial music recordings in the 70s.

But I'm also reminded of a demonstration by one of my college teachers. He played a recording of an orchestral work that had been recorded with just one mic... AKA "Mercury Living Presence". It wasn't even stereo!

Then he played a recording of the same work, the same orchestra, same conductor even, but recorded a decade+ later with every section and every soloist separately mic'd into a mixing board.

Everything about the one-mic version sounded better, the soloists were clearer, the ensembles were more unified, the ff sounded more ff and the pp sounded more pp even though in decibels that probably wasn't true.

It had "presence".

After you heard the one-mic version, the multi-mic version sounded hopelessly muddy and lifeless.

I think it was Creed Taylor who recommended 18" in front but just off axis to avoid the high frequency buzzy spitty noises.

But I'm also reminded of a demonstration by one of my college teachers. He played a recording of an orchestral work that had been recorded with just one mic... AKA "Mercury Living Presence". It wasn't even stereo!

The Mercury recordings are examples of the best recordings around. Using simple mike setups, great halls to record in, and great musicians, they captured amazing recordings, that rival or better most digital stuff. For example, Frederick Fennel's Wind Ensemble recordings.

PhilTrombone wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 6:58 am

But I'm also reminded of a demonstration by one of my college teachers. He played a recording of an orchestral work that had been recorded with just one mic... AKA "Mercury Living Presence". It wasn't even stereo!

The Mercury recordings are examples of the best recordings around. Using simple mike setups, great halls to record in, and great musicians, they captured amazing recordings, that rival or better most digital stuff. For example, Frederick Fennel's Wind Ensemble recordings.

True! Lots of excellent performances, recorded in both mono (one microphone) and stereo (only two mics, centered, slightly above and in front of the orchestra). A revolution in its time.