isbell@marvin.DEC (Chris Isbell ) (03/22/84)
[] Quote from Greg Gadeholt: > At best, a piercing screech is caused by crummy strings or a crummy violin. > At worst, the screech is caused by a crummy violinist. The problem is not > something inherent in modern violins. > > A good musician can make Mozart sound good on either an original or modern > instrument. A hack will sound at best "OK" on either. A performance's > quality is far more dependent on the musician than on the instrument. > There is also a third reason for the piercing screech from violins, and that is bad recording on records/tapes. This happens for two reasons, firstly because the recording engineer wants a brighter sound, and secondly because of the microphone position. Most 'classical' records are produced using microphones close to the various groups of instruments so that the engineer can fiddle with the balance of the orchestra, and 'spotlight' a particular group or single player. The microphones are usually placed above the string section. The act of rubbing a bow on a string produces various high frequency 'scratching' sounds. High frequency sound is very directional, and in the normal course of events, it goes up towards the ceiling and does not reach the audience. When a microphone is placed above a violin, it will pick up this high frequency noise and faithfully reproduce it. Certain record companies tend to produce records with a house sound. My experience is that a lot of recordings from EMI have a harsh string sound (chrome plated), while DG tend to 'spotlight' to excess. Chris Isbell. (...decvax!decwrl!rhea!marvin!isbell) Thu 22-Mar-1984 08:25 GMT