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HANDEL: MESSIAH
AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS
Jeffrey Thomas, Music Director
(Delos DE-3360)
We’ll be listening to samples from a live performance of Handel’s Messiah by the American Bach Soloists. The ABS, playing on period instruments, is among the world’s finest “baroque style” orchestras. A mix of this recording was released on the Delos label (DE-3360).
Rarely (if ever) in my audio career have ALL the ideal acoustic production elements shown up in one place: a truly masterful performance in a world-class recording space captured with extremely realistic engineering techniques.
Producer and Music Director Jeffrey Thomas has allowed the “intangibles” to flourish: organic, human, visceral qualities that are so often lacking in "overly formal" acoustic music, especially Messiah readings. This recording seems to have it all. Choir dynamics and intonation are stunning; ensemble pacing and phrasing is masterful; choir and orchestra gel as one living instrument.
Twenty microphones were arranged on stage (mic chart). We’ll be comparing the acoustic properties of multi-mic versus two-mic recording technique. The main stereo microphones heard on these recordings are a pair of Josephson 617 bodies with Gefell MK-221 omni measurement capsules. Recorder is a Radar S-Nyquist sampling 44.1 kHz @ 24 bits1. A quad of 130 volt DPA 4012 mics are positioned on choir. All mics are fed to Millennia micamps. Mixes were produced on a Sequoia v8 workstation. Word length reduction (24 to 16) is via POW-R #3. Stereo pair recordings are unprocessed, straight from RADAR, natural room reverb.
The main stereo mics were fixed 290cm above stage floor, spread about 45cm wide, pointed about 45 degrees off center (left and right), and pointed about 20 degrees down from stage parallel. This effectively splits the orchestra for even acoustic coverage – recall that omni mics are not omni-directional at all frequencies, hence point does matter.
The DPA 4012 high voltage mics were stationed evenly about the choir 340cm above stage floor, with choir on risers. Point was nearly straight down into the heart of each choir section and slightly to the choir’s front.. Vocal soloists (Daniel Taylor - Countertenor, etc.) used Josephson 606A-KM25 hypercardioid mics. Mics were placed about 70cm in front of vocalist, about 30cm down from mouth height, and pointed up appropriately. Mics were placed down from mouth plane not for sonic purposes but to give better audience line of sight. Ideally, we would want to be tighter on axis.
Here are comparison audio examples of the identical performance captured with raw two-mic and mixed multi-mic techniques.
RECORDING EXAMPLES
STEREO PAIR ONLY
Glory (16/44.1) (MP3)
Child (16/44.1) (MP3)
Goodwill (16/44.1) (MP3)
Daniel T. (16/44.1) (MP3)
Yoke (16/44.1) (MP3)
Interlude (16/44.1) (MP3)
Amen-end (16/44.1) (MP3)
The debate over “pure” stereo orchestral recording
versus multi-microphone mixes has raged for decades.
Here’s a rare opportunity to hear both simultaneously
as a controlled experiment.
We all know examples of poorly executed examples in
both “purist” and “mixed” categories. Often, two-mic
recordings employ widely spaced (Large AB) omni’s,
offering a tremendous sense of orchestral spaciousness,
but sacrificing accurate stereo imaging and stage
placement. Conversely, coincident two-mic orchestral
techniques (XY) can deliver exceptional spatial
imaging, but often at the expense of a flat and
lifeless ambience and loss of depth.
In this Messiah production, we chose closely spaced
omni microphones (Small AB) as our main stereo pair.
We find that this is often the ideal “tradeoff” between
orchestral space and imaging. Even though we had
numerous mics open, I estimate that >80% of the
mixed program remained on these two microphones.
Alas, this is often a hallmark of convincing mixed
orchestral recordings – spot mics are used gently
and sparingly, like spice.
Some of the finest contemporary examples of mixed
orchestra are found in the motion picture industry.
Today’s leading movie scoring engineers include
Shawn
Murphy, Bob
Fernandez,
Simon Rhodes,
Dennis Sands,
Steve Kempster,
Armin Steiner, Alan
Meyerson, Michael
Farrow, Frank
Wolf, and John
Rodd.
Record companies, such as Telarc International, are also making fine
multi-mic recordings, with engineers like
Michael Bishop,
Jack
Renner, and
Tony
Faulkner leading the way.
This of course brings up the subject of “Surround” orchestral recording, a topic that will hopefully be covered in future discussions. Please let me know if you have any questions about this recording, or suggestions for future discussions and audio examples. I will get back with you. Look for more tutorials in the future – including comparisons of our recordings with:
- Russian National Orchestra
- Academy of St. Martins in the Fields
- China Philharmonic Orchestra
Tour the
Mondavi Performing Arts Center
John La Grou
Millennia Media, Inc.
California, USA
JL@JPS.NET
1 To our ears, the RADAR S-Nyquist
recording system achieves optimal sonic
results at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz sampling rate
and 24 bit word length.
Music excerpts (C) 2005 American Bach Soloists
All Rights Reserved
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