[BC] The real thing....

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

When I worked for WCRB, under the late Richard L. Kaye,
I recorded live performances of the BSO for the Boston
Symphony Orchestra Transcription Trust. No instruments
were ever "miked."

We used a pair of Neumann u64 Microphones placed at
90 degrees, one head's distance apart, just below
center stage. We had experimented with u67 types,
but their larger diaphragms acquired too much low
frequency rumble (room noises).

RCA also had a recording studio with multiple
channels and many miked instruments. They
often purchased the trusts recordings because
theirs were no good.

Erich Leinsdorf was conductor and music director
and he was charged with listening to the final master
before a pressing was made. Several times, they
were rejected, and the BSO trusts recordings
substituted.

This "re-mastered" recording was made by either
Richard L. Kaye himself, or me under his tutorship.
 
http://cdbaby.com/cd/tbselc

Symphony Halls were designed so that individual
instruments could be heard with extreme clarity.
Miking instruments destroys the hall and substitutes
a recording technician's individual taste which,
although it may be okay, it is seldom what the
master who wrote the score had in mind. Note that
Stravinsky and others wrote for a hall, not for
a microphone!

--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Read about my book
http://www.LymanSchool.org


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: 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 
> > 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
> 
> 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.
> 
[Snipped...]