Hi. gang... I haven't posted here in a while because I've been so busy with school. I've now finished two years of lower division music theory/harmony, and two semesters of musicianship. I've completed three semesters of class piano and dabbled in some basic voice classes. Also, just for relaxation and fun, I played in the college "small jazz ensembles" for two semester. In the fall I move up to San Francisco State in their "Elder College" program... (not sure about how I feel about being an "Elder"!! ha!) ... to take counterpoint. In the Spring I'll get orchestration and a semester of conducting. I'll probably spend a year in the University composers consortium, which is basically a discussion group of upper division and grad student music students interested in composition.

Also in the Fall I will be taking "Electronic Music I" which is basically "Introduction to Logic Pro". I have to wait for a full year before I can catch "Recording sound for Musical Applications" as it's only offered in the Fall and EM1 is a prerequisite. Here's the course page for the recording class:

https://catalog.collegeofsanmateo.ed...ic/mus-289.php

The recording class is mostly about recording in a studio, but I'll get time on a real board, doing real mixing, and get experience with a mess of different microphones. The class depends on students bringing in friends to record, so I'll probably recruit 8 players from the orchestra to come in and record something like the Mendelssohn Octet. This is not really what I want to do, I'm more interested in live recording but I think the experience will do me good.

I've been recording the string orchestra that I manage, as well. The orchestra is 16-20 strings-only, all dedicated amateurs, and the hall is really lovely. The primary conductor likes to get everybody pretty close together so I usually rely on an ORTF pair of Line Audio CM-4's. about 4 feet behind her, and about 5 feet over her head for my core setup. I did get my pair of ribbons out at the last concert and put them about 18 inches separated, inside the piano lid for the Ernest Bloch Concerto Grosso #2 . Mixing is still with Audacity, but I recently took a shot at using Reaper for a DAW...so far so good! My live recording tastes run to "dry", apparently!


Here's a somewhat low-fi recording I did of the Bloch Concerto Grosso #2 , first movement for y'all to peruse. It's up on the orchestra's Facebook page.

Ernst Bloch, concerto Grosso #2

Anyway, I'm not really a "regular" here so much any more, though I do drop in now and then. However I learned a lot from this forum, and some other fora here at GS, so thanks to y'all for helping launch the recording end of this new post-retirement "career".

Congratulations on your new "career". I'd forgotten all about that Ernest Bloch piece. On hearing it, I realized that I performed it in high school.

David

I've now finished the lower division Theory/Harmony/Piano requirements and have taken a few music electives. One of them was "electronic music I", where for all intents and purposes I functioned as one of the TA's until we got to the last two units. I'm taking Counterpoint at the State University and will start the two semester conducting sequence next semester, and take a class called "20th Century Compositional Techniques".

My last couple of recitals have featured pieces I've written, for solo piano, piano four-hands, string orchestra and string quartet plus clarinet. I had to drop "Class Viola" last semester but I'll be starting it up again.

The string orchestra I manage premiered one of my pieces last Sunday. There is no obligation whatsoever to program anything I write, the conductor chose to to this, so it's a big deal. I do all the recording for the orchestra.

I've auditioned the Decca Tree with my string orchestra and have decided that it's not necessary, the group isn't big enough to need all that hardware. After recording 6 concerts in the hall, I think I've got it sussed out...a spaced pair of OM-1 omni's at 40 cm, with the stand about 8 feet behind the conductor and about 6 feet over his head gives good results. We just had an oboe soloist, so I put a ribbon on her as a spot...worked a treat.

Once again, I'm forced to admit that the quality of the recording is relatively irrelevant to the musicians I work with. I recorded a local chamber music concert with all my gear, and nobody ever asked for any of the recordings of their pieces. If I put my Blue Yeti on a mic stand in front of the group and use a long booster USB cord to get the signal into Audacity on my mac, and then send out unaltered low-res mp3 files, everyone is happy.

As a result of A.) some recordings of this group and another group that I've made that "got around" and B.) the fact that I've played in both the ensembles in the past, I now have recording arrangements with two local amateur orchestras. I'm sure you'd all be dismayed at what I charge them. I've also started up a little informal business recording local high school students who need audition tapes for application to college music programs. I've done four of them so far and the students (and their parents) seemed happy with the results. These sessions can go on for quite a while, as the students aren't happy with anything less than perfection....or as close as they can get...and 15 minutes of music may take all afternoon to get down.

So the janitor here is not by any means getting rich doing his recording, but he's having fun and turning over a little sum of money doing it, which just provides the resources to buy more kit, to be honest.

Next up...I want a Senhheiser MK4.

An Austrian Audio OC18 is not that much more costly, and I think you'd find it very useful.

it's quite ambient sounding, I would consider moving the mics around, play with what you've got first, line audio cm3 mics are good I have a pair but I found that they are not the best at long distance recording, I use them primarily for classical guitar and piano recording

So, something I've learned in my time here and. helping out in the college studio is:

1.) everybody has their favorite mic. "but for just a little more money you could get X"...and you will tell me to get an Austrian Audio LDC, but someone else will tell me to buy a Rode LDC and someone else will tell me....and
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IS RIGHT. They're all great pieces of kit. Nobody will tell me to go buy an AT2020, right?

But I'm going to be upfront here. I've now auditioned about 5 mid-priced LCD's close-micing a young ladies voice, and then trying it inside a grand piano case, and yes, I can tell the difference but.....this is important..... the differences aren't big enough, in my ears, to amount to much.

This Sennheiser MK4 is locally for sale used for $120.

2.). Mic placement is probably more important, overall, than which microphone you pick.

There are limits to this axiom of course, you can't use garbage, but the subtle-ish differences between the various LDC's we tried was easily overwhelmed by good or bad mic placement.

What I REALLY want is a Warm Audio tube mic for jazz vocals and close-up solo strings but $$$. Don't have it.

BTW, David, I appreciate your recommendation. No kidding, I do. I probably won't buy that microphone, but if you hadn't written that, I wouldn't even know that the company existed.

PS: I gave away my sE7's. They just didn't work out for anything that I do, regularly. All I could see them doing was drum overheads and I never record groups like that.

I have no personal experience with that mic, but a LDC from a reputable manufacturer at that price seems like a no-brainer, If the seller will oblige, I would look at the condition of the diaphragm with the head basket off. It should be relatively dust-free, without any sign of dried spit, etc. Hopefully a pop screen was always deployed when it was used for vocalists. And let us know how it works for you. There has been surprisingly little commentary about that mic in Remote Possibilities.