[78-L] Mercury, (was early multi-mike recordings or something like that)

[DAVID BURNHAM]

I always enjoy reading Michael Biel's postings which obviously carry a fair amount of authority.

Michael Biel responded to my previous posting:



>  I say "reputedly" because when it comes to believing him, I'm a bit of an agnostic.  In his early Mercury 78 sets, he includes a technical note in every album which says he placed an omni-directional mike 30 feet from the musicians in a reverberant room.

"He" is not Bob Fine.  The recordings were produced by David Hall, and 
David did all of the liner writing.

>  One such album is a Schubert String Quartet.  Even with a modern mike, such an approach would yield a pretty uninteresting sound - distant and reverberant. 
>  

Is this #14 Death & the Maiden by the Fine Arts Quar of Amer Bc Co on 
MDM-14 and LP MG-10008?
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That is the set I'm talking about and it says "Engineer Robert Fine was in charge of these recordings."  I have corresponded with David Hall about this technical note and he said he didn't think the mike was anywhere near 30 feet from the quartet.

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>  I know many arm-chair recording engineers believe this is the best way to do things, just like putting two mikes about 20 cms apart in the best seat in a concert hall would produce the most accurate Stereo sound.  These beliefs totally ignore the basic rules of psycho-acoustics. 
>  

That also isn't how it is done.

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I think you misunderstood. I'm talking about people who have never recorded anything themselves, they just feel they know how it should be done.

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>  I have tried the "Living Presence" method of
>  recording with symphony orchestras and the results are never satisfactory - even using the mikes which Fine specifies. 
>  

You don't know the secret.  David Hall told us.  Chicago's hall had a 
half-shell design at the top of the stage.  It acted as a parabolic 
collector that focused the sound to one pinpoint.  That is where the mic 
was put. It was perhaps 30 feet or more off the ground.  When the hall 
was renovated in the late 50s that shell was removed and that ended the 
trick.  (If you take a tour of the U.S. Capitol they will show you two 
points in the old Senate chamber where someone whispering at one of the 
points can be heard loud and clear at the other point.  Same trick)  
While such designs are rare, alot of halls have sweet spots like that.  
It is why some halls are notable as recording halls and others aren't, 
but it might not be noticeable one way or the other to the audience.  
But twenty-five feet up it might be evident.  Have you ever gone that 
high up in a hall?  "The best seat in the house" is not at ground level 
or even ten feet up. 

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I did know that "secret", but I think the version I heard was that it was in Minneapolis, not Chicago, but I'm sure you're right on the location.  The Mormon Tabernacle must have several such "sweet spots", Telarc recently released a Christmas record done there and it is probably one of the worst sounding record this company ever made.  This phenomenon might be useful in mono recording but certainly not in stereo, in fact, such situations, (and I run into them regularly), are a serious impediment to stereo recording.  St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England also has a whispering gallery which works on the same principal.  There is a place in Sudbury, Ontario called "Science North" which has a pair of parabolic reflectors set up so two people can go to each one and talk quietly to each other over a great distance.

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>  If you listen to the Fine recording of Khachaturian's Violin Concerto, you can hear clicking on the woodwind instruments which sound very close to a microphone and the violin soloist is very present. 
>  
Why do you assume that Bob Fine recorded all of the things you see on 
Mercury?  That is a very famous set, but not because of Fine.  Look at 
it.  Does it seem likely that it was recorded anywhere where Fine could 
have recorded it?  No, of course not.  This is famous because David Hall 
traveled to Europe and licensed it from the Soviets via Supraphon in 
Czechoslovakia where most of the early Mercury classical records came 
from.  Fine's recordings begin with the Olympian Series LPs, not the 78s. 

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I think you're referring to the Oistrakh/Gauk recording, I'm talking about the stereo one by Szeryng and Dorati done in London.  But as mentioned above, Robert Fine is clearly identified as the engineer on some of the 78 sets.

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>  I can't imagine an omni mike positioned to give these perspectives, but however he did his recordings they sound magnificent and, of course, they are legendary.  But I'm still a little dubious.  db
>  

All of the mono classical recordings were produced by David Hall.  Don't 
give too much credit just to Bob Fine.  He didn't record them all, and 
recorded none of the European ones till the late 50s. 

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I have one Mercury CD, "Hands Across the Sea" which was produced half by Wilma Cozart and half by David Hall.  These are all stereo recordings but, unfortunately, the Hall tracks sound muddy and unfocused compared to the Cozart tracks.  Robert fine is listed as engineer on all tracks.  I respect David Hall's credentials and I think that his tracks, (recorded in 1956), were mastered from tapes which had suffered deterioration over the years.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com