[BC] The real thing....

[DHultsman5 at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/21/2008 6:04:21 PM Central Daylight Time, rfry at adams.net 
writes:

> I can truthfully say that no recording I have ever heard has been able to 
> approach the quality of sound heard in these live performances, no matter 
> where I was sitting -- which has ranged from the front row, center on the 
> main floor (Chicago) to the side of the last row in the highest balcony 
> (Vienna).
> 
> RF 
> 
> 

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Mr. Fry:

I am not a musician....but I have been amazed at some of the RCA  recordings 
of the NBC Symphony made in the 1930's and the ability to pick out individual 
instruments of the orchestra.  These were monaural recordings and I would 
imagine that the only instruments directly "miked" were probably soloists.

Of course this was before the days of "Stereo" recordings and had some 
frequency response limits compared to today's CD's and digital performances.

I read that the positioning of a single microphone in the proper relationship 
to the orchestra was done by RCA's Russian conductor after extensive 
listening to the performances.

In the ealry days of my stereo recordings of church choirs and musical events 
I found the best sound of both the choirs and the orchestras was simply 
hanging two microphones for basically left side and right side and having a pair of 
close spaced microphones for any vocal or instrumental soloist that needed 
extra level for the mix.

I seem to recall the old CBS operating manual for orchestras recommended 
using one properly placed microphone for all musical pickups and one additional 
microphone for the vocals.



Dave Hultsman
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