Mikes Up Close: The AIX Sound

Engineers, especially those that specialize in jazz or classical recording, usually employ just a few microphones to capture an entire performance. Commercial recordings are rarely made that way. These records are made multitrack layer by layer. The musicians are brought in to add something to the track while listening to the recorded playback of other musicians or machines.

I’ve been fortunate to have worked in both worlds. I spent a numbers of years working at a commercial studio in North Hollywood. We produced albums for Warner Brothers Records and for an in house Christian label. The biggest act was Ambrosia, who had a number of charting hits. On the other side, I recorded hundreds of recitals at the university where I studied music and ended up teaching electronic music and music theory. During the summer, I was hired to work by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Summer Arts program. I met and worked with Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas and John Adams among others. I recorded their concerts at the Hollywood Bowl using minimal miking technique.

But the sound was always too distant for my taste. The “documentary” style of music capture wasn’t drawing me into the music the way I thought it should. If the model in classical or jazz is to present a “live” event through a record, then I guess a few stereo pairs of microphones can do the job. But there’s no intimacy or excitement compared to being near the musicians or on stage next to the conductor.

Figure 1 – A session for the soundtrack of Star Trek – Into Darkness showing lots of microphones.

It was sound of orchestral movie soundtracks and the CDs from “new age” label Windham Hill that worked for me. When an orchestra is assembled in a large studio for a movie project like the recent Star Trek: Into Darkness (see photo below), the recording engineers use a mixture of close and area microphones. There’s even a fair amount of direct signals being added to the acoustic music from samplers and synthesizers. The result is a much more powerful sound with lots of detail and sonic integrity.

So when I started AIX Records back in 2000, I was willing to try a few different techniques common to film scoring in my approach to a classical session. One of our first large orchestral projects was with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conducted at the time by Zdenek Macal. The project combined two well-known classical compositions: Beethoven’s 6th Symphony “Pastoral” and Respighi’s The Pines of Rome from 1932. We flew to Newark, New Jersey and assembled one of the first 24-track multichannel HD-Audio recording systems to capture two days of sessions.

I placed ORTF stereo pairs throughout the orchestra. There were pairs for each group of 4 string players, a pair for each row of the woodwind and horn sections. The brass and percussion sections were also recorded in stereo with microphones placed close to the players. Of course, I had additional pairs at the edge of the stage and in the back of the hall to capture the ambiance.

The difference in the sound of the final mixed result was astounding! Zdenek was floored…and this from a guy that had won a Grammy doing things the traditional way. I received the following from a customer:

“I originally planned to get the free sample CD/DVD-A to help me consider whether I should purchase an SACD or DVD-A player. On a hunch that my money would be well spent (I read the positive review in Stereophile) I purchased the Beethoven & Respighi disc to play on the DVD video player I already own. What incredible sound!! I actually find like it more than my vinyl copy of Respighi’s Pines of Rome. (Ozawa/Boston Symphony/Deutsche Grammaphon/2530890). – Bill Lipman – Customer”

Over the years, we’ve garnered a lot of very positive reviews and comments on our “sound”. One of my favorites is the comment from a satisfied customer on the Stravinsky and Ravel disc:

“As for the recording, Oh my! I don’t even know where to begin. I have almost a 50-year history with these two pieces and I have never heard them presented this beautifully. The orchestra, playing, interpretations may not be the very tip of the spear (but I would give them a 95% even here), but the RECORDING! This sets new landmarks for me in believability. Just close your eyes and listen into the soundstage; 5.1 has never been done better IMO. If you want a reference/demo disk, this is one you will keep near the top of your stack. – Jerrich Senior Editor/Platinum Spottie”

I believe our approach is unique and it works. It also allows me to deliver multiple 5.1 surround mixes as well as a stereo mix in HD. Check out some of the orchestral tracks on the free download page of this site.