“Senur” first chapter.

In 10th of February 2013 I recorded a concert with Amateur symphony orchestra.
The program contained a wonderful melody “Senur” composed in four chapters by Sigurður Sævarsson. It was composed for string orchestra and obo. Both the orchestra and the soloist, Guðrún Másdóttir, played it flawless. Hereby is the first chapter of Senur without any post work.
I was pretty happy with the recording result, even though the concert hall (a church) sounded terrible for recording. It has a very harsh sound and difficult peaks in some resonance frequencies.
Over the orchestra I used a Jeclin disk with a double pair of mics, parallel MKH8020 and MKH20 in 45°+45° (as shown on the picture).
Close to the soloist there was a pair of MKH8040 and far behind in the hall was a pair of SE4400 with spaced Omni (70cm).
Past months I have got a few emails where people ask me for a sound sample with my Jecklin disk. So here are two samples, both almost the same, but one is recorded with MKH20 in 45°+45° and the other one with parallel MKH8020.

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Recording with Sennheiser MKH20
Download mp3 file. (256kbps / 9Mb)

Recording with Sennheiser MKH8020
Download mp3 file. (256kbps / 9Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices 788
Mics: Sennheiser MKH20, MKH8020, MKH8040 and SE4400
Picture of the Jecklin disk

Arlo Guthri and Franz Anton Hoffmeister

In November 2011 I recorded a concert with Amateur Symphony Orchestra. Special guest and soloist in this concert was a Gissur Páll Gissurarson tenor and Dean Ferrell bass player. This concert was different from many others I‘ve seen and heard. Most of the time during the concert, Dean, Gissur and the director Oliver Kentish, were acting in a comedy. Part of this concert is now visible at YouTube.
I have noticed that omnidirectional mics give the best result in sound quality. That is one of the reasons I use very often omnidirectional mics as Mid-side mic in MS setup.
In this concert I decided to use AB setup located over the orchestra.
For many reasons it gives a fabulous result. Compare using same multi polar pattern mics in MS setup it gives better result in the lower frequency resolution. The only negative thing was a bit too long reverb on the orchestra and too short on soloists. Six pieces of mics could also make a phase error.
At concert like this, I can´t act as a king. I need to make me as compact as I can. For many reasons I like that. It is a challenge to make a nice recording without be necessarily in the best place, or have a trailer of recording equipment.
During the concert I tried to beware the phase problem. But the soloist was “acting” almost everywhere. Most of the time they were far away from the best place for the mics so I got some phase failure.
Following two songs are made by Arlo Guthry (The Pause of Mr. Claus) and Franz Anton Hoffmeister (Menuett). In this recording Dean Ferrell bass player is singing and playing on his fabulous Bass. Violist, Celloist and Bass player in the orchestra are playing with Dean in the Menuett song.


Recorder: Sound Devices 744 w. 552 preamp
Mics: SE4400 in AB setup. 60cm apart in 2.5 meters over the orchestra. For bass soloist, SE 4400 in MS setup (mid mic omni). For tenor, SE1a in XY setup (not used in this web session).
Pix: Canon 30D. (more pictures)

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 
 Download mp3 file (224kbps / 12.8Mb)

Soprano in Laugarneskirkja (church)

Guðjón Samuelsson (b.1887 – d.1950) was the state architect of Iceland from 1924-1950, and designed many churches, including the Catholic church and Hallgrímskirkja as well as the National Theater. Laugarneskirkja was consecrated in 1949, and is not one of his most orginal works, as it looks a lot like the church he built in Akureyri a year earlier.
In 3rd of July 2011 I recorded few songs with Anna Jónsdóttir, a soprano singer in Laugarneskirkja.
She began her song study at Nýi tónlistarskólinn, (New Musical School) by Alina Dubik and graduating with a final exam in the spring of 2003.
Next winter, she studied at the Musical University in Bucharest where her main tutor was Maria Slatinaru.
Anna completed his degree soloists from the New Musical School in November 2004 under the guidance of Alina Dubik.
Anna thought Debut-concert in the fall of 2006 at Hafnarborg where Jonas Sen played with her on piano. In 2008 she released her first CD, Móðurást, containing Icelandic songs where the main theme is motherlove in it’s broadest sense.
Past years Anna has been active in the Icelandic music scene with a solo concert and participation in larger projects.
Antonia Hevesi are playing on Piano in this two songs..

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 
Download mp3 file.