how are classical music recorded?

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ricardojoa

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how are classical music recorded?
« on: 24 Mar 2014, 10:31 am »
Does anyone know how are classical music recorded?
The reason i asked, i recently replaced my older Marantz AVR sr 6400 with a new processor and power amp from Nuforce. I was listening to some classical music today, and i noticed im hearing details that i have not heard before. These are not music details, but more like a faint background noise from an orchestral or classical venue. It sounds like noises made from the performers. Is really faint though and  I dont recall hearing these details with the old set up.
Is it possible that the recording and set up is so transparent that now i could hear these background noises?
Is really odd in a way but it does give a sense of more realism.It doesnt sound like distortion or malfunction of the equipments.
If classical music are recorded at the venue of performance, that could explain the background noise.

Guy 13

Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #1 on: 24 Mar 2014, 10:57 am »
Does anyone know how are classical music recorded?
The reason i asked, i recently replaced my older Marantz AVR sr 6400 with a new processor and power amp from Nuforce. I was listening to some classical music today, and i noticed im hearing details that i have not heard before. These are not music details, but more like a faint background noise from an orchestral or classical venue. It sounds like noises made from the performers. Is really faint though and  I dont recall hearing these details with the old set up.
Is it possible that the recording and set up is so transparent that now i could hear these background noises?
Is really odd in a way but it does give a sense of more realism.It doesnt sound like distortion or malfunction of the equipments.
If classical music are recorded at the venue of performance, that could explain the background noise.
Hi ricardojoa.
Since the time I have up-graded my sound system,
I can hear background noise of the recording studio on some CDs
as well has some noise the musicians makes during the recording.
On one recording, I even heard the musician going:
Humm mmm to apparently clearing his throat.
That's the (Interesting) reward of a high fidelity system.
Enjoy.

Guy 13

ricardojoa

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Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #2 on: 24 Mar 2014, 11:33 am »
Hi ricardojoa.
Since the time I have up-graded my sound system,
I can hear background noise of the recording studio on some CDs
as well has some noise the musicians makes during the recording.
On one recording, I even heard the musician going:
Humm mmm to apparently clearing his throat.
That's the (Interesting) reward of a high fidelity system.
Enjoy.

Guy 13

Hi Guy,

good to hear your experience and that im not having an illusion disorder. Imagine hearing a faint fart, thats gonna be Classical!

Ericus Rex

Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #3 on: 24 Mar 2014, 11:36 am »
Classical music is usually recorded in a performance hall.  This could be a symphony hall for orchestras or a church for chamber music.  Back in the 50s and 60s studios were often used but those recordings are often sterile sounding with no room acoustic in the mix.  Many of the discs available are live recordings which means exactly that; recorded during an actual performance with actual audience...coughs and all.  There are some recordings that also capture the traffic just outside the hall as well.  With so many people in an orchestra you're bound to eventually hear someone make a sound.  Usually pages of music being turned.

jimdgoulding

Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #4 on: 24 Mar 2014, 11:58 am »
What Rex said times two.  Appreciation of an orchestra in the actual place in which it is recorded is enhanced by our in room speaker set up, but ya'll knew that already.  The Cardas website is a good reference point, just in case you didn't. 

Photon46

Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #5 on: 24 Mar 2014, 12:49 pm »
As your system becomes more resolving, you'll hear more and more room and performer noises in classical recordings. Common performer noises are rustling sheet music, bows tapping against instruments during pauses, feet shuffling, faint coughs. One hall in London is notorious for having the sound of a nearby subway inducing faint rumbling sounds in recordings. I've heard what sounds like faint traffic or train noises outside performance halls in a number of recordings.

S Clark

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  • a riot is the language of the unheard- Dr. King
Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #6 on: 24 Mar 2014, 12:54 pm »
The 1950's was the great decade in which the recording engineers first made huge strides in classical recording.  Mercury and RCA had simple miking techniques that emphasized a natural sound that captured the hall as well as the musicians.  Orchestra Hall in Chicago (prior to the 1967 renovation), Kingsway Hall and Walthamstow Hall in England were favorites of the RCA engineers Wilkinson and Layton.  Mercury had Robert Fine and Wilma Cozart Fine recording in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, and Rochester.  These recordings usually capture the reflections of the halls to create an more complete aural recreation. Some halls just didn't record that well.  Boston and Carnegie were known to be difficult places to record (although some, like Fiedler were such taskmasters that they did take after take until recordings were to their standards).  Great halls, musical talent, gifted engineers and sometimes a bit of luck are all required to get great classical recordings.

Guy 13

Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #7 on: 24 Mar 2014, 12:59 pm »
The 1950's was the great decade in which the recording engineers first made huge strides in classical recording.  Mercury and RCA had simple miking techniques that emphasized a natural sound that captured the hall as well as the musicians.  Orchestra Hall in Chicago (prior to the 1967 renovation), Kingsway Hall and Walthamstow Hall in England were favorites of the RCA engineers Wilkinson and Layton.  Mercury had Robert Fine and Wilma Cozart Fine recording in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, and Rochester.  These recordings usually capture the reflections of the halls to create an more complete aural recreation. Some halls just didn't record that well.  Boston and Carnegie were known to be difficult places to record (although some, like Fiedler were such taskmasters that they did take after take until recordings were to their standards).  Great halls, musical talent, gifted engineers and sometimes a bit of luck are all required to get great classical recordings.

 :thumb:

ricardojoa

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Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #8 on: 24 Mar 2014, 01:16 pm »
Im glad to hear you guys experience.
And the good thing is that it didnt take a fortune to realise this. :)

Pycroft

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Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #9 on: 24 Mar 2014, 03:24 pm »
I was a part of a Grammy Award winning Classical recording (I believe the grammy was for engineering or sound tech or something along those lines). It was a choral/orchestral piece. There were hundreds of microphones setup EVERYWHERE. We would record a movement at a time, and once complete, the engineers, musicians, etc. would get together and ask us perform certain parts again. As said earlier, you may hear page turning, coughs, etc. If, during our recording session, someone coughed, we usually redid the section. We wouldn't stop, but they would re-record a section from beginning to end of a phrase, and throw an edited version in. Of course, you can't remove EVERYTHING. The worst was once finishing, and you have to cough or scratch, or do anything, and just waiting for the all clear - it was awful. Imagine having to redo a beautiful cadence because someone had a scratch in their throat :)

James

Russell Dawkins

Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #10 on: 25 Mar 2014, 06:14 am »
Well fortunately there currently exists software which is capable of removing coughs nearly perfectly from live performances. Sirens, passing motorcycles, buses and trucks, chair squeaks, music page turns and dropped pencils, too.

I don't know if it'll remove farts, though; they tend to be musical and not sufficiently different from low tuba notes, for example.

Yours for $3500.

Guy 13

Re: how are classical music recorded?
« Reply #11 on: 25 Mar 2014, 10:12 am »
Well fortunately there currently exists software which is capable of removing coughs nearly perfectly from live performances. Sirens, passing motorcycles, buses and trucks, chair squeaks, music page turns and dropped pencils, too.

I don't know if it'll remove farts, though; they tend to be musical and not sufficiently different from low tuba notes, for example.

Yours for $3500.
All those (Unwanted) noises, including the farts are they not part of the music?
Removing them would make the music less natural.
3,500 USD that's a lot of money, without knowing for sure,
if it only remove those little noise and not some of those beautiful harmonics.

Guy 13