Recording Leicester Symphony Orchestra

On the 21st of May, Dickie and I recorded the Leicester Symphony Orchestra at the De Montfort Hall, assisted on-stage by the theatre’s sound engineer, whom was introduced to us as “Scooby”. The recording was conducted using 4 mics, swung from a lighting bar in the following manner:

·      A spaced-pair of two AKG C414 with Omni patterns, hanging approximately 8 meters above the orchestra and in-line with the front of the stage.

·      A coincident pair of Neumann KM184’s, center stage and again hanging at the same height and in line with the other mics.

Basking in the glory of the moment!

Our recording rig consisted of a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 and a Macbook Pro running Logic Pro 9. With the session being recorded at 24-bit, 176.4kHz (Sample Rate), I was wondering whether my little MacBook would live up to expectations, but she did us proud and ran without any signs of stress.

Now I'm certainly a fan of classical music, but this was the first time I had ever witnessed a 70-piece orchestra live and for Richard and me to be the only other people present in the auditorium during their practice, was an insanely brilliant feeling. There were two practice sessions before the show, so this gave us a chance to set our levels and ready ourselves for the evening performance.

Me Watching Levels (with an immense looking side-parting)

The program for the night included:

·      Elgar’s  Polonia

·      Elgar’s  Cello Concerto, Featuring guest cello soloist David Cohen

·      Saint-Saens Symphony 3 (Organ)

With this being the first (of hopefully many) occasion that we have recorded an orchestra, we were slightly anxious about our levels clipping given how dynamic an orchestra is. But the recording ran smoothly and it was certainly an awe-inspiring sight to see the orchestra in all their glory.

The Orchestra during a practice session

Listening to the recordings once getting them home, they sound amazing and I’ll be posting some samples as soon as we get clearance. So a big thank you must go to the Leicester Symphony Orchestra for allowing us to record the show, it was certainly a great opportunity for us.  

So now it’s on to the next challenge, which is to conduct a recording in a church or cathedral and hopefully capture some immense acoustics.

(Two posts in two days! I’m getting better)