Recording Classical Music

Recording Classical Music presents the fundamental principles of digitally recording and editing acoustic music in ambient spaces, focusing on stereo microphone techniques that will help musicians understand how to translate "live" environments into recorded sound. The book covers theory and the technical aspects of recording from sound source to delivery: the nature of soundwaves and their behavior in rooms, microphone types and the techniques of recording in stereo, proximity and phase, file types, tracking and critical listening, loudness, meters, and the post-production processes of EQ, control of dynamic range (compressors, limiters, dynamic EQ, de-essers), and reverberation (both digital reflection simulation and convolution), with some discussion of commercially available digital plugins. The final part of the book applies this knowledge to common recording situations, showcasing not only strategies for recording soloists and small ensembles, along with case studies of several recordings, but also studio techniques that can enhance or replace the capture of performances in ambient spaces, such as close miking and the addition of artificial reverberation. Recording Classical Music provides the tools necessary for anyone interested in classical music production to track, mix, and deliver audio recordings themselves or to supervise the work of others.

Part 1, Fundamental Principles 1 Soundwaves Enclosed Spaces Performance Venues 2 Audio Chain from Sound Source to Listener Integrity within an Audio Chain Basic Concepts and Terminology Part 2, Production 3 Microphone Types The Behavior of a Pure Diaphragm Condenser Microphones Dynamic and Ribbon Microphones 4 Microphone Characteristics Frequency Response Directional (Polar) Patterns Random Energy Efficiency Distance Factor Proximity Effect Phase 5 Stereo Microphone Techniques Coincident Pairs Near-Coincident Arrays Spaced Microphones 6 Tracking Critical Listening Setting Levels Room Ambience Part 3, Post-Production 7 EQ – Frequency Balance Digital Filters Common Practices 8 Control of Dynamic Range Compressors Limiters Dynamic EQ De-essers 9 Reverberation Digital Reflection Simulation Convolution 10 Delivery File Types Loudness and Meters Part 4, Common Recording Strategies 11 Solo Piano Recording in Stereo Unfavorable Room Acoustics 12 Soloists with Piano Accompaniment 13 Small Ensembles 14 Sessions Solo Piano Solo Cello Double Bass and Piano 15 Studio Techniques: Re-Creating the Aural Sense of Historic Spaces Pre-Production Production Post-Production

Robert Toft teaches in the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University, Canada. His interests revolve around the notion of research informing practice, and he specializes in both recording practices and the history of singing. He has written five books on historically informed vocal performance and has given master classes at leading conservatories and universities in Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and the USA. Robert’s production company, Talbot Records, released its first recording in 2017. Inspired by the intensely dramatic performing styles of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, its main series, Radically Hip, connects modern audiences to the impassioned eloquence of the past.