Tuba sound on orchestral recordings vs live

[tubajoe]

Oh man.

Live and recorded are two such completely different animals...

Some of the best sounding recordings (of any kind) I believe are the old RCA Victor CSO/Reiner recordings... I think those were done with THREE mono recorders and THREE single microphones.

Now, every digital everything aspires to sound like that. It's so incredibly backasswards!

Rock records aspire to sound like Back in Black or Aja, Jazz records like Body and Soul.

...just like every orchestral tuba aspires to sound like the Chicago Yorks.

This all said, tuba is a difficult instrument to capture, it's acoustic properties take a *lot* of care. a LOT. ...and worse, few engineers understand it.

[mbell]

Some of the best sounding recordings (of any kind) I believe are the old RCA Victor CSO/Reiner recordings... I think those were done with THREE mono recorders and THREE single microphones.

I love the old RCA recordings with CSO/Reiner as well as Boston SO recordings and many others. Most of them were done with 3 microphones but one recorder. I think they might have had a separate recorder for mono. Records at that time were issued in both mono and stereo. The center microphone was usually split to both channels so that there wouldn't be a hole in the center of the sound. If you get the SACD version of those old RCA recordings the center mic is fed to the center channel. So you get what each mic recorded straight off the master tape from what I understand. I think those recordings capture the whole orchestra sound very well and also the wonderful halls, particularly Boston and Chicago.

The early 1950s Mercury recordings of the CSO are done with a single microphone.

I heard Gene Pokorny speak at the 1992 conference in Kentucky. He said not to listen to commercial recordings. Rather, listen to radio broadcasts as they would give a better impression of what an orchestra and brass really sounded like.

mike

[doublebuzzing]

Some of the best sounding recordings (of any kind) I believe are the old RCA Victor CSO/Reiner recordings... I think those were done with THREE mono recorders and THREE single microphones.

I love the old RCA recordings with CSO/Reiner as well as Boston SO recordings and many others. Most of them were done with 3 microphones but one recorder. I think they might have had a separate recorder for mono. Records at that time were issued in both mono and stereo. The center microphone was usually split to both channels so that there wouldn't be a hole in the center of the sound. If you get the SACD version of those old RCA recordings the center mic is fed to the center channel. So you get what each mic recorded straight off the master tape from what I understand. I think those recordings capture the whole orchestra sound very well and also the wonderful halls, particularly Boston and Chicago.

The early 1950s Mercury recordings of the CSO are done with a single microphone.

I heard Gene Pokorny speak at the 1992 conference in Kentucky. He said not to listen to commercial recordings. Rather, listen to radio broadcasts as they would give a better impression of what an orchestra and brass really sounded like.

mike

Pokorny has good advice but you have to be careful here too. If the radio broadcasts are truly "live" it is good advice. Unfortunately, many orchestras (NYP, CSO come to mind) claim they are broadcasting live performances when in reality they have recorded 3 concerts and spliced together anything that didn't sound right from the 3 performances (they had to have gotten everything in the piece right at least once in three tries). In doing this, they aren't literally "live" happening in the world right now. They usually post these concerts on their websites a few weeks after the concert actually happened--ample time to patch up any rough spots in the "live" performances. This is why mistakes are rarely, if at all, heard in the NYP/CSO concerts posted on their websites.

One orchestra that does give really live performances is the Minnesota Orchestra on Friday nights (all the mistakes will be heard if they are made--no time to patch them up, post-production).

[mbell]

Pokorny has good advice but you have to be careful here too. If the radio broadcasts are truly "live" it is good advice. Unfortunately, many orchestras (NYP, CSO come to mind) claim they are broadcasting live performances when in reality they have recorded 3 concerts and spliced together anything that didn't sound right from the 3 performances (they had to have gotten everything in the piece right at least once in three tries).

Yes, mistakes will be cleaned up in most broadcasts nowadays, likely more so than at the time Mr. Pokorny spoke over 20 years ago. But the sound of the orchestra will tend to be more natural since there are usually fewer microphones used compared to a commercial recording. Also, most likely much less post production work is being done. I believe the edits mainly consist of choosing the best movements or large sections of a work.

I prefer actual FM broadcasts over recordings streamed from a web site. It is not as convenient, but the web streams often sound dead to me, probably because the compression causes loss of hall ambience. Here in Austin the classical station, KMFA, would usually carry either NYP or CSO, sometimes the LA Phil. Unfortunately, they are not carrying any of them right now.

mike