From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad Hello, I think we can do one better as concerns vintage equipment. Last week I was invited to participate in a re-enactment of a famous acoustic recording session series: Arthur Nikisch' recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony of November, 1913 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Nikisch was Hungarian! The re-enactment (with reconstructions of historical acoustic recording equipment -- the full Monty) took place in London at the Royal College of Music (RCM), and it was a project organised by Aleksander Kolkowski (Sound Artist in Residence at the Science Museum London in 2012) with Amy Blier-Carruthers (Royal Academy of Music) and Robin O'Neill (Professor of Conducting at the RCM). The musicians were the Chamber Orchestra of the RCM. Such a lot was learnt during the days of recording that the first that will be published about it will most likely be at a lecture at the RCM scheduled for 4 December 2014. Kind regards, George ------------------------------------------------------ On 18 November 2014 Tom Fine wrote: > The small boutique labels probably work on a shoestring budget with > second-tier non-union orchestras > and conductors willing to work for 1/10th of what Karajan got. It's doable, > but certainly not easy. > There are a lot of well-trained musicians in eastern Europe and Asia. Notice > that big orchestras > like the LSO and Chicago have gotten into releasing their own recordings > (mostly just concert > recordings, but occasionally a real-deal produced classical recording > somewhat akin to what used to > be done). My own taste does not favor any of this stuff to the best "golden > age" recordings. I don't > need "new" when it's not "better." > > Don, you are wrong about musicians playing "better" live, not if they're > good musicians. Perhaps > today, orchestral players have so few opportunities to do real recording > sessions that they don't > know how to do them anymore. But, back in the "golden age," both the best > orchestras and the most > successfully-recorded conductors were very clear on the fact that a > recording session is different > from a live performance and were very good at the kind of super-precise and > quick-on-the-draw > music-making that is required for successful recordings. Live concerts can > be more sloppy because of > audience enthusiasm. They tend not to hold up as well to repeated listening > outside of the live > venue. A great recording is closer to perfection as far as each note being > rendered correctly within > the larger context of the music. Conductors like Dorati, Reiner, Szell and > Solti (coincidentally, > all Hungarians, and there were many other "golden age" conductors of other > nationalities who made > long-loved recordings) really understood this and made many great > recordings. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Don Cox" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 10:34 AM > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Recording technology > > > > On 18/11/2014, Tom Fine wrote: > > > > > >> > >> Find a top-rate orchestra in a good acoustic space, get some serious > >> funding to restore the vintage equipment (last I checked, Schoeps > >> wants several thousand dollars per mic to factory-restore M201's, and > >> they can't guarantee results since they have no original parts on > >> hand; Steve Jackson at Pulse Techniques can make near-clones of the > >> Pultec preamps for several thousand dollars per channel), gather up a > >> whole bunch of digital gear to test, and we're ready to roll, just for > >> the feasibility-testing stage though! I won't hold my breath. ;) > >> Seriously, I thought about this at one point and came up with a $25k > >> budget just to get started, just for gear and gear restoration (figure > >> several multiples of that to pay a producer/editor, recording engineer > >> and mastering engineer). Maybe 10-15 albums per year, at a cost of > >> about $15k per album factoring in travel costs, and then add more for > >> manufacturing of the end product (which is what? single CDs? they're > >> supposedly toxic to profits in the classical business. SACDs? can't > >> live on sales of a few thousand units. downloads? what format? how > >> will you market them?), marketing, etc. There is no classical > >> recording business plan except a crazy rich patron that works for that > >> kind of craftsmanship today. > >> > > I wonder how companies such as CPO or BIS manage to finance their steady > > stream of issues of single CDs of often little-known orchestral works. > > > > Regards > > -- > > Don Cox > > [log in to unmask] > > > >