CLARINET & VIOLIN 7.1_ATMOS MIX
This surround recording took place on Saturday, October 30th 2021, at the James Dolan studio located in the Steinhardt education building. It was a recording session I did with a fellow engineer at the time, Yukun, for some of his friends. The instrumentation of the recording was violin and clarinet duo. The performers performed two movements from a Busch piece and a Mozart duet.
Mic Set Up
For this recording, there was a set of room microphones and a set of spot microphones placed closer to the instruments. The two performers were three feet apart from each other. The room set of microphones consisted of an OCT system and Blumlein one. The OCT L and R were Sennheiser 8050’s facing the sides of the room, they were 95cm apart from each other and 25cm away from the horizontal axis of the OCT centered microphone. The OCT C was a Neuman U67 tube microphone 2m away from the performers in a shape of an isosceles triangle combining the 1m distance between them. The OCT Ls and Rs were facing the back of the room to capture the reflection of the waves coming from the instruments hitting the walls of the room. The microphones were Neuman M147’s, also tube microphones 105 cm apart from each other and 65cm away from the horizontal axis of the center microphone. Right underneath the OCT C, we placed a Royer SF-12 Blumlein system microphone 1 m away from the center of the two artists. For the spot system, we set up six microphones, three on each instrument. For the violin we first placed a DPA 4099 clamped on the side, pointing towards the bridge and f-hole. Secondly, we put Yukon’s microphone, an Aston Element, at a forty-five-degree angle from an invisible vertical line from floor to ceiling. Finally, a DPA 4011 on the left of the Aston Element, also pointing towards the bridge of the violin. For the clarinet we also put a DPA 4099 strapped above the bell and pointing towards the head of the artist to get the sound from the keys. Moreover, two DPA 4011s were placed one pointing towards the bell and lower tube side and the other towards the upper side.