# Is there a 'standard mic' setup for air studios orchestra?



## Fab (Mar 27, 2017)

And also, i understand there are 2 halls, which of these are the majority of composers recording at (recentely). What about SF? Hans? > which one does he use?

--/

Say a less experienced composer goes to record there, is there a standard set up microphones, do they set up for you? Who usually does the set ups?

If you can answer any of these, either from your own experience or from other sources that would be cool.

Thanks, any other information, interesting things or experiences can also be good to hear.


Fab


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## Rctec (Mar 27, 2017)

Fab said:


> And also, i understand there are 2 halls, which of these are the majority of composers recording at (recentely). What about SF? Hans? > which one does he use?
> 
> --/
> 
> ...


There is no "standard" way to mic the orchestra at AIR. But there are two different ways of setting the up: facing the Gallery or facing the organ. Nick Wollage likes projecting the sound up into the gallery, Geoff Foster likes it the other way 'round.
But beyond that, it's very much down to what music you're recording. You can raise or lower the ceiling in The Hall - which makes a huge difference, of course. You can raise the tree, The out-riggers, etc. But it all takes a conversation with your engineer first. There are so many options in how and what you do. That's why it takes a good day before your session to mic an orchestra. Yes, you probably end up favoring the M50s on the tree, but you do want to make sure that the spot mics can get you out of trouble...

Just give Allison a ring at AIR, she'll sort you out.

-H-


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Mar 27, 2017)

There's a great interview of Fiona on the Spitfire YouTube channel where she talks about working there as the tracking engineer. If you want to see how the session actually run you can see their video of an entire session there.

While the details change, I do think there is a "standard" way in a more broad sense. You're probably gonna have a tree, outriggers, and spot mics. I doubt they'd ever record an orchestra with something like an ORTF pair instead of a tree so I think that is standard. Of course there are many additional mics that will then change a lot. An example of this would be Alan Meyerson using multiple trees at different heights as he likes to think of recording the orchestra at different height levels (3, I believe).


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## SterlingArcher (Mar 27, 2017)

Rctec said:


> There is no "standard" way to mic the orchestra at AIR. But there are two different ways of setting the up: facing the Gallery or facing the organ. Nick Wollage likes projecting the sound up into the gallery, Geoff Foster likes it the other way 'round.
> But beyond that, it's very much down to what music you're recording. You can raise or lower the ceiling in The Hall - which makes a huge difference, of course. You can raise the tree, The out-riggers, etc. But it all takes a conversation with your engineer first. There are so many options in how and what you do. That's why it takes a good day before your session to mic an orchestra. Yes, you probably end up favoring the M50s on the tree, but you do want to make sure that the spot mics can get you out of trouble...
> 
> Just give Allison a ring at AIR, she'll sort you out.
> ...



This is a video from MusicTech magazine from a few years back that might be interesting to everyone with Geoff Foster describing a mic setup for a project that he was working on at the time.


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## Matt Riley (Mar 27, 2017)

SterlingArcher said:


> This is a video from MusicTech magazine from a few years back that might be interesting to everyone with Geoff Foster describing a mic setup for a project that he was working on at the time.




That's fascinating what he says about string players playing better when they are alone. I've always had them sit together sharing stands in live situations. For recording, the visual isn't important I suppose. Anyone have options on that?


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Mar 27, 2017)

Matt Riley said:


> That's fascinating what he says about string players playing better when they are alone. I've always had them sit together sharing stands in live situations. For recording, the visual isn't important I suppose. Anyone have options on that?



He doesn't have them individually in a line. They're still in pairs for each stand. He's just putting them into a single line instead of having them wrap around so that there are 2 rows of each. 

As a violinist who's played for over a decade in orchestras, I agree with his comment and always try to get myself as far away from the firsts as possible when I'm a second. It's not always possible with the stages I normally play on but we try to have an empty space dividing the first and seconds.


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## Fab (Mar 28, 2017)

Thankyou, I appreciate you guys taking the time to reply. There is a good amount of interesting information and insight here, I'm sure others have also gotten something out of it.

Fab,


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## mark.warman (Mar 28, 2017)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> There's a great interview of Allison on the Spitfire YouTube channel where she talks about working there as the tracking engineer.


Alison Burton handles the booking of the studios. Spitfire's video features the talented Fiona Cruickshank.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Mar 28, 2017)

mark.warman said:


> Alison Burton handles the booking of the studios. Spitfire's video features the talented Fiona Cruickshank.



Oops, that's right. Corrected.


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## bryla (Mar 28, 2017)

It is never the composers job to set it up. It should always be the engineer (whether that is someone the composer hires or is hired by the studio) that makes informed decisions based on the composers descriptions and the hall.
Hans's engineers probably do it in a different way than we do with Jóhann for example.


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