At that level you expect the sound engineers to know what thry are doing, When you descend a few (or more) steps things really start getting hairy! I remember playing the 1812 at an outdoor venue during the late 70s or early 80s. Since we were using real cannons the decision was made to use amplification for the musicians. The "engineer" took care of the horns by placing a microphone about 2 feet from my bell (I was on 4th). First horn was about 12 feet to my left...no mic! The sound people would tolerate no criticism of their "professional" judgement and discussion with the conductor merely brought a shrug of the shoulders....he hadn't hired the sound crew . I've never, before or since , played the 1812 so quietly. After the performance the sound people went back to working rock shows without understanding (or even trying to understand) why we were complaining.
Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <horn@music.memphis.edu> Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 1:32 PM Subject: RE: Miking was RE: [Hornlist] Haydn/Dorati Hornists > > Jeremy, > > Sorry, you missed my point, and I did not take it personally at all as I did > get paid union scale! This was an "experimental" session in quad. They > must have had 72 tracks and mikes to match. The year was about 1978 or 79. > There were lights on our mikes, and they were OFF! I looked up the recording, > it is re-released on CD now, Sony SMK 45844, Boulez conducting Varese w/NYPhil > and other groups. This was the old crew from CBS, Andy Kazdin, Bud Graham, > etc. All good producers, engineers, etc. I worked with them a lot in > Phila., Marlboro and NYC. I just thought it was really funny! We all did. As to > direct miking of horns, I agree with you. That day, the mikes were pointed > at the wall behind us, as I recall, and were above our heads. Andy Kazdin, > and his buddy, John McClure, liked multi channel mixing in big, reverberant > rooms. It was not unusual for them to mike the horn solos with a direct mike > and mix it in with the indirect sound for more presence. In small commercial > studios, the good engineers always miked horns indirect, the bad ones > directly. > > As to MN Beethoven 5 recording, this was done after I left the orchestra so > I have no idea who is involved there now. > > Shooting is too kind. They should have to listen to their mistakes cranked > up to 120 DB and slowly go deaf. Oops, maybe they are deaf already? Yeah, > but poison them slowly instead of shooting. > > KB > > In a message dated 7/14/2006 1:02:25 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > message: 15 > date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 11:01:37 -0400 > from: "Jeremy Cucco" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > subject: RE: Miking was RE: [Hornlist] Haydn/Dorati Hornists > > Good stuff! > > Kendall - > > I wouldn't take it too personally for a couple of reasons. > > 1 - many (if not most) mics don't have a light on them. It's quite > possible they were using one type (with lights) for other parts of the > orchestra and a specific type (without lights) for the horns. I often > use different mics to get different parts of the orchestra. Clarinets > and trumpets sound great through ribbon mics (no lights) and horns and > bones sound good through tube mics (some have lights.) > > 2 - horns in general when direct mic'ed sound like poop! Perhaps they > realized this and simply turned the mics off after the fact. > > Paul - > > I feel for you. This had to be an insane group of sessions! The horn > just sounds crappy when a mic is shoved up the bell! Of course they > weren't getting a good sound from it. Sometimes I really feel like some > sound engineers need to be shot! > > > FWIW, I'm writing an article on micing and recording the orchestra. I > am going to try to excerpt the part about the horns and see if the horn > call will publish it. It should be done in a month or so. (It's > long!!! I'll need to do some judicious cutting!) > > J. > > PS - > > Kendall - Do you recall who did your recording (MO's) of Beethoven 5? > The disc is great but for some reason the engineer chose to use a rather > fake sounding reverb processor at the end of the tracks. Another > candidate for someone to get shot... > > > > _______________________________________________ > post: horn@music.memphis.edu > unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/lotp%40comcast.net > _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
