Classical Recording : A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Glossary of terms, acronyms, and abbreviations -- Glossary of recording attributes -- Part I Before recording -- 1 Acoustics and the recording venue -- 1.1 Brief introduction to room acoustics -- 1.2 What to be aware of when looking at a venue -- 1.3 What can you do to help with poor acoustics? -- 2 Studio techniques and working on location -- 2.1 Equipment -- 2.2 Practicalities at the recording venue -- 2.3 Rigging microphones and running cables -- 2.4 The control room -- 2.5 Studio communications: talkback, telephones, and cue lights -- 2.6 Optimising recording workflow -- 2.7 Running the session -- Part II Recording -- 3 Basic two-microphone stereo techniques -- 3.1 Co-incident microphone techniques -- 3.2 Spaced omnis -- 3.3 Spaced and angled cardioids -- 4 Solo instruments -- 4.1 Classical guitar and flamenco guitar -- 4.2 Harp -- 4.3 Violin -- 4.4 Cello -- 4.5 Woodwinds -- 4.6 Harpsichord -- 5 The piano -- 5.1 The nature of the sound of a piano -- 5.2 The physical layout of a grand piano -- 5.3 The piano lid -- 5.4 Recording aims -- 5.5 Recording a solo piano: the spaced pair -- 5.6 The Decca piano technique -- 5.7 Techniques for other scenarios -- 5.8 Practical issues when recording pianos -- 6 Voice: solo and accompanied -- 6.1 The singer in a recording session -- 6.2 The classical voice and microphone placement -- 6.3 Using two microphones on the voice -- 6.4 Microphone choice -- 6.5 Use of ambient pairs -- 6.6 Concert recording layout -- 6.7 Studio recording and reverse concert positions -- 6.8 Classical voice and lute/theorbo/guitar -- 6.9 Mixing and fader riding for a singer -- 7 Solo instruments and piano -- 7.1 Violin and piano in concert -- 7.2 Violin and piano: studio layout -- 7.3 Cello and piano in concert.

7.4 Cello and piano: studio layout -- 7.5 Woodwind and piano -- 7.6 Brass and piano -- 8 The Decca Tree -- 8.1 What is the Decca Tree? -- 8.2 The three- and five-microphone trees -- 8.3 The four-microphone Decca Tree -- 8.4 Microphones for the Decca Tree -- 8.5 Mounting the tree -- 8.6 Notes on the evolution of the Decca Tree -- 9 Ancillary microphones -- 9.1 What do we mean by 'ancillary'? -- 9.2 Perception of orchestral depth and perspective -- 9.3 General notes on placement of ancillary microphones -- 9.4 Panning and levels of ancillary microphones -- 9.5 Woodwinds -- 9.6 Brass -- 9.7 Percussion -- 9.8 Double bass section -- 9.9 Other string sectional microphones -- 9.10 Harp -- 9.11 Celeste -- 10 Surround sound techniques -- 10.1 Purpose of surround sound in classical music recording -- 10.2 Panning a Decca Tree in 5.1 surround -- 10.3 Natural reverberation: additional microphones for 5.1 surround -- 10.4 Artificial reverberation in 5.1 surround -- 10.5 Offstage effects in surround: location of sources behind the listener -- 10.6 Object-based audio: Dolby Atmos -- 11 Solo instruments and orchestra -- 11.1 Piano concerto: studio layouts -- 11.2 Single piano concerto: concert layout -- 11.3 Piano concerto conducted from the keyboard -- 11.4 A note on the size of the grand piano -- 11.5 Violin concerto: studio layouts -- 11.6 Violin concerto: concert layout -- 11.7 Wind concertos: studio and concert layouts -- 11.8 Cello concerto: studio and concert layouts -- 11.9 Guitar concerto: studio layout -- 11.10 Brass concertos: studio and concert layouts -- 11.11 Percussion concertos -- 12 Chamber ensembles -- 12.1 String quartet in studio layout -- 12.2 String quartet in concert -- 12.3 Piano quintet: studio and concert techniques -- 12.4 Piano quintet: reverse-seated studio position -- 12.5 Piano trio: studio and concert techniques.

12.6 Small wind ensembles: studio or concert layout -- 13 Wind, brass, and percussion bands -- 13.1 A note about dynamic range and ear protection -- 13.2 Large wind ensembles -- 13.3 Classical brass ensemble -- 13.4 Brass band -- 13.5 Percussion ensembles -- 14 Organ -- 14.1 Brief introduction to the pipe organ -- 14.2 Doing a venue reconnoitre -- 14.3 Microphone choices, stands, and cable runs -- 14.4 Basic technique: straightforward organ layout -- 14.5 Organs with pipe divisions in several locations -- 14.6 Interesting acoustic effects and other awkward corners -- 14.7 Monitoring limitations -- 14.8 Communication: talk microphone -- 14.9 Noise -- 14.10 Electronic organs -- 14.11 Organ with orchestra: overdubbing or simultaneous recording -- 14.12 Organ pitch -- 14.13 Sampled organs -- 15 Choirs -- 15.1 General notes on microphone choice and placement -- 15.2 Choir spacing -- 15.3 Small choir -- 15.4 The choral society -- 15.5 Choral society with soloists and organ in concert -- 15.6 Antiphonal church choir -- 16 Solo voice, orchestra, and choir -- 16.1 Orchestra and choir -- 16.2 Orchestra and choir with stationary soloists -- 16.3 Recording live opera for cinema, DVD, TV, radio, or CD -- 16.4 Recording live opera at the Royal Opera House: microphone set-ups -- 16.5 Mixing opera to 5.1 surround for cinema -- Part III After the recording session -- 17 Mixing -- 17.1 Choosing and blending microphone sources into a static balance -- 17.2 Riding levels on ancillary microphones -- 17.3 Use of EQ and high-pass filters -- 17.4 Use of delays -- 17.5 Reverb: natural and artificial -- 17.6 Riding overall levels -- 18 Editing and post-production -- 18.1 Aims and philosophy of editing -- 18.2 Requirements of a classical editing system -- 18.3 Source-destination editing -- 18.4 Classical post-production workflow.

18.5 Refining edits: how to solve problems and maintain musical flow -- 18.6 Notes on working with different instruments -- 18.7 Overdubbing scenarios -- 18.8 Emergency measures: sampling piano notes and note removal -- 18.9 Professional finish: joining into room tone -- 19 Mastering -- 19.1 Noise removal -- 19.2 Changing the sound -- 19.3 Tops and tails: room tone, breaths, noises, and fades -- 19.4 Levels between tracks, compression, and loudness meters -- 19.5 Placing track markers for CD mastering -- Appendices -- Appendix 1 Opera recording: practices at Decca from the 1950s to the 1990s -- Appendix 2 Cheaper alternatives to classic microphones -- Appendix 3 Original session set-up sheets -- Appendix 4 Orchestral layout notation -- Bibliography and further read -- Index.

Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition is the authoritative guide to all aspects of recording acoustic classical music. It equips the student, the interested amateur and the practising professional with the required knowledge and confidence to tackle everything from solo piano to opera.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.