Choral/Orchestral/Classical recording

[Bierman]

Should I compress the final mix or not?

I'm sort of torn over this. I basically think that the dynamic range of a (case in point) choral recording should be preserved as accurately as possible... as a result obviously there are some passages which are soft and subtle, and others which are loud and dramatic. All good.

Unfortunately when you're not using world class pres and mics, the quality of your kit really begins to show, especially in the quiet bits where the output of the stereo your listener is using to hear your recording is turned way up. Suddenly the background noise of their stereo system becomes rather present.

There is also the issue of people listening on portable players which generally dont have that loud an output. If someone tried listening to the recording I just made on their ipod on the tube they wouldnt really be able to hear much.

Anyone on this forum experienced in classical recordings? What do you do? I suppose there is some sort of middleground right?

 

[giraffe]

most classical listeners will be used to quieter material.

 

[XLR]

Gain control either manually or using automation is better for this than compression. You definitely don't want to hear compression on peaks. If you do have some huge and very occasional peaks that you want to tame, you can adjust those manually also, or use a high quality limiter like the L2 - much better than a standard compressor.

Tim

 

[Bierman]

ugh - automation on 80 minutes worth of a recording? no thanks.

 

[BigRay]

no compression! I record classical (location exclusively) I sometimes use a limiter on location(-1db) but never compression. Save that crap for rock and pop. Thats why we have volume knobs. WHo cares if your kit isnt hot shit, there have been great sounding albums made with less. (some of my favorite recordings were made with only 1 stereo pair) listen to early Decca, Telarc etc..no comp! I rarely touch my recordings in post either, maybe a touch of EQ or whatnot. All my sound is achieved through mic placement and not synthetic processing. My vote is no. I hate hearing processed classical recordings. Hence why I havent bought anything from the past 20 years.

Should I compress the final mix or not?

I'm sort of torn over this. I basically think that the dynamic range of a (case in point) choral recording should be preserved as accurately as possible... as a result obviously there are some passages which are soft and subtle, and others which are loud and dramatic. All good.

Unfortunately when you're not using world class pres and mics, the quality of your kit really begins to show, especially in the quiet bits where the output of the stereo your listener is using to hear your recording is turned way up. Suddenly the background noise of their stereo system becomes rather present.

There is also the issue of people listening on portable players which generally dont have that loud an output. If someone tried listening to the recording I just made on their ipod on the tube they wouldnt really be able to hear much.

Anyone on this forum experienced in classical recordings? What do you do? I suppose there is some sort of middleground right?

 

[SonicAlbert]

You might want to consider some limiting (very light). This will raise up the overall volume level, and probably only lop off a few peaks. Or no peaks. You might need to just raise the overall volume up a bit, which of course maintains the dynamic range.

I also don't like compression on classical recordings. But I find limiting to be less obtrusive if done properly, and if only subtle amounts are applied.

We unfortunately live in a noisy world, and many people listen to music in their cars or while they are doing something else. It's not like they are sitting in a quiet environment giving full focus to the music, although there are people that do that.

The problem with a noisy environment is that when the music gets soft it simply disappears. I've tested my own piano tracks in a restaurant, and when the music gets soft it is as if there's no music at all. In a quiet room it sounds great.

So a *bit* of limiting might be just the ticket. However, if you can hear the limiting you've put on too much.

 

[Halion]

ugh - automation on 80 minutes worth of a recording? no thanks.

Mate, you need to make an statement here. If you feel that automating the volume on 80 minutes of music is too much work, I, personally feel, you don't care about your job nearly enough. Sure, it's a shitload of work and it's not exactly the most creative thing you could be doing, but if that's what has to be done, then by all means, DO IT! It will take you a day, and you'll be exhausted at the end. So be it. It'll be worth it. Do it the right way, don't go cheap. Automate that stuff.

Now to lighten the mood:

 

[Bierman]

fair enough I take your point bit of a lazy arse me sometimes...

but to actually get it to not sound strange or unnatural, and all that work and mouse clicking and moving nodes... seriously I do plenty of dance and pop production as well and I do ENOUGH automation in that. I really dont think its worth it - and for the record I care about my job a LOT. I'm just starting up my own company right now, from scratch, all on my own. I do absolutely EVERYTHING, from marketing to graphic design to carrying the fucking heavy boxes to coiling the leads and packing the flightcases, printing and burning the cds, writing the thankyou letters - im not just the recording engineer. believe, I care.

I'm with Ray and Albert - au naturale with maybe just a wee bit of limiting I think is the ticket.

 

[SonicAlbert]

A wee bit of limiting and maybe a wee bit of writing automation as well. If you find the limiter kicking in too hard you can write automation just for that spot.

 

[Alexbt]

Could you better describe the recording you've got?

I did some choral stuff recently. I was not able to get levels for each group in advance so I did not know how loud things were going to get, so I left a good amount of room to prevent clipping.

In the post-recording phase (it was hardly mixing...) I edited out the applause (which peaked considerably, and we did not want it) and normalized the tracks, rolling in and out with automation. It worked well enough, and the volume is just great.

 

[Halion]

Alright I didn't really mean you HAD to do it, because I don't know if it needs to be done. It might sound great without any help. But if it does need it, than do it