Hi all,
I'm new here to Audiogon. I am a classical musician and have been a recordist for 20+ years as a serious hobby. My interest is in minimalist recording techniques. I enjoy the challenge and the natural sound stage it provides.
I feel a certain kinship with audiophiles since they are among the few in society that appreciate what many recordists are seeking to accomplish.
Hence this post!
Since you all have stellar systems here, I am interested in any feedback you may have on a recording I did that was a bit of an experiment in minimalism. Here's the background - I wanted to see if I could record a jazz combo using only two microphones in a nice concert hall. I asked a jazz combo if they were interested and they agreed.
I took my cue from the techniques used prior to multi-tracking in which the musicians were arranged on both sides of the mic ('in the round' as we say) and for balance moved closer to or further away from the mics. In other words, no mixing or panning.
FYI, the recording was done in December of 2015 and I had not seen the One Mic recordings of John Cuniberti yet, though the technique is essentially the same. I just wanted to throw that in there! haha
There is absolutely no processing except a bit of eq on the bass to bring it up a touch. Next time I will raise the bass player up on a riser - live and learn. Instead of using compression, I brought down a few of the drum spikes manually and was able to bring up the overall levels. But other than that, all original dynamics are perfectly intact.
The equipment includes two Royer ribbon microphones in Blumlein array (one on top of the other facing at 90 degrees). With a figure 8 polar pattern in each mic, it captures a 360 degree sound stage with excellent stereo imaging. The mic preamp was designed and hand built by Dan Kennedy who owes Great River electronics, a high end mic pre company. This was the company's first mic preamp. They discontinued it because it couldn't be mass produced - it can only be put together by hand - and so too expensive to offer. The next in the audio chain was a Mytek ADC (many of you probably own a Mytek DAC) recorded at 88.2/24 bit. And that's it.
Below is the soundcloud link or you can go to SoundCloud and search for 'robbie ree kosta' and it should come right up.
https://soundcloud.com/shostycellist/robbie-ree Too bad it streams at 128kb. It still sounds acceptable, however. I can link to a video if any are interested to see how it was done.
Very interested to hear how it comes across on your systems. Thank you!
