tarr-michael@CS.YALE.EDU (michael tarr) (08/06/90)
My finance's uncle is the recording engineer for the Chicago Symphony. If you ever listen to their concerts on public radio he's the one who does the sound. He also records the Orchestra for Chandos. Recently while in Chicago he let us sit in on a rehearsal at the Ravinia Summer Festival. Some random notes from talking to him: He uses a pair of B&K's about 10 ft above the stage and about 5 feet in front. Plus lots of spot mics in the strings, horns, etc... Everything goes into his 16 track mixer and then onto a Sony U-matic video tape. The A/D is done by a Sony F1 which he claims sounds much better than the 1630. No audiophile cables (but not real cheap ones either). He has a Sony 2 box DAT. He rarely uses it because he says the tapes are extremely sensitive and unreliable -- he can't imagine how they will survive commercial use. He has a digital reverb unit. Depending on the hall and whether there is an audience he mixes in a little reverb to keep things from sounding "dry". He claims that everyone (including supposedly audiophile purists) mix in some reverb (usually lexicon) because of the realities of the recording environments. Perhaps the best sounding hall in the country is Symphony Hall in Boston -- much better without an audience and when they build out the stage so the Symphony can spread out. Anyhow, I thought people might be interested. His latest commercial recording is Pictures at an Exhibition on Chandos. I think it sounds fantastic! Mike Tarr tarr@cs.yale.edu