Core Sound Sampler (All tracks recorded with Core Sound products) FIRST SELECTION: Title: "The Phantom of the Opera" Andrew Lloyd Webber 3:43 Location: St. Mark's Episcopal Church Palo Alto, California Sunday, October 31, 1993 Performer: James Welch, Organist (Recording used by kind permission of the performer) Recorded by: Romain Kang Notes: A Casio DA-R100 portable DAT recorder was fed directly from a Core Sound Binaural microphone set used as spaced omnis. The microphones were positioned across the center line of the room, approximately at the crossing, one-third of the way back of the church, three feet above the floor and two feet apart. The microphones were mounted on common microphone stands (cast iron bases) and pointed up toward the ceiling. The recorder was positioned roughly 25 feet from the microphones and fed the signal via a long cable. The Casio was powered via an AC adapter which transmitted some AC line noise. The room itself is very lively but has a short reverberation period. The linoleum-covered wooden floor transmits a fair amount of noise. The room can accommodate roughly 500 people but is currently set up for 200. The organ is a electro-pneumatic with about 60 ranks originally built by Casavant, but has been reworked a number of times and no longer bears the Casavant nameplate. The main divisions are behind the high altar of the church, hidden by a sheer fabric screen. The swell division is installed high on one side of the chancel, and the gallery division is high on the back wall of the nave. Highlights: The imaging. Note the palpable footsteps as the performer enters from the right and sits at his instrument. Later in the performance listen as the the various divisions of pipes are brought in. Near the end, listen to the haunting ghostly melody in the very high registers. Although this was recorded with a spaced-omni set up for playback over speakers, the sound over headphones is still very good. SECOND SELECTION: Title: "The Blues" Location: Zanzibar (a downtown nightclub) NYC, NY October 21, 1993 Performers: "The Nuff Brothers" -- Top NYC studio musicians including: Lou Marini tenor sax (leader) Lawrence Feldman alto sax Birch Johnson trombone Alan Rubin trumpet Robbie Condor keyboards David Spinoza guitar Tommy McDonald vocals Stu Woods bass guitar Richard Crooks drums Recorded by: Len Moskowitz -- Core Sound Notes: Recorded using a Core Sound Binaural microphone set and a Sony TCD-D3 portable DAT recorder. The Core Sound microphones were clipped to the temple pieces of the taper's eyeglasses and positioned as close to his ears as possible, facing outwards. The taper was seated roughly ten feet from the stage's front, centered in the audience. The room is rectangular, roughly 35 feet wide and 100 feet deep, with a high ceiling. The stage starts roughly ten feet from the left wall and extends to the right wall. The band was arranged, from left to right as: In front: keyboards at far left, alto sax, tenor sax, trombone, trumpet, vocalist In back: guitar (behind the keyboards and the sax), drums, bass The house PA system is a bit boomy and also thick in the midrange. It was used almost exclusively for the vocalist and biased strongly toward the left. (Lou Marini, Alan Rubin and Birch Johnson are the horn section from "The Blues Brothers". Lou recently toured nationally backing James Taylor. The rest of the musicians are among the top "firstcall" studio musicians in New York City.) Highlights: Recorded binaurally so listen on headphones. Note the realistic location of the audience sounds and the preservation of the night club's ambient soundfield. If you listen carefully, at one point the taper turns his head far to the right and the audio image shifts correspondingly to the left. Playback over speakers gives a presentation similar to recordings made with "Jecklin disk" arrangement. THIRD SELECTION: Title: "The Oompah Loompah Song" (from the movie "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory") Location: Unknown Performers: The quartet "Undiscovered Harmony" from Rice University Tenor: Hugh Ho Lead: Joel Riphagen Baritone: Mark Engelberg Bass: Brian Sadovsky Recorded by: Mark Engleberg Notes: Another binaural recording. Listen on headphones. Recorded using a Core Sound "battery box" set and a Denon DTR-80P portable DAT recorder. The Denon's -20 dB attenuator switch was on and the microphone pre-amp gain set to maximum. The Core Sound microphones were clipped to the temple pieces of the taper's headband and positioned as close to his/her ears as possible, facing outwards. The singers, an acapella quartet, were positioned around the taper as follows: Front Lead Left person Right Tenor wearing Baritone microphones Back Bass All singers stood an equal distance from the person wearing the microphones; this distance was approximately 2.5 feet. Highlights: This recording has a glaring binaural technique error: it has two of the performers directly on the front/rear axis. When recording binaurally you'll capture the best psycho-acoustic location cues if you keep the performers a few degrees off the front/back axis. Within roughly plus/minus ten degrees from directly forward and backward we can't discriminate direction well, so we confuse whether a sound is coming from the front or the back. Sometimes it sounds as if the location is above us. Out in the world, when we face this situation, we nod our heads from side to side a bit to disambiguate the direction. When listening to a recording, obviously nodding doesn't work. If you listen closely, you can hear the bass singer sway from side to side. When he goes off the front/rear axis, his location cues sharpens. The lead singer, at the front, is difficult to locate through the whole recording. Even with this flaw, the recording works pretty well. Great fun! FOURTH SELECTION: Title: "Bitter Rain" Location: The Mercury Lounge, NYC Performers: "Storyville" Vocals: Malford Milligan Lead Guitar: David Grissom Guitar: David Holt Bass: Tommy Shannon Drums: Chris Layton Recorded by: Len Moskowitz Notes: This track was recorded with Core Sound Stealth Cardioid mics and a Sony TCD-D3 DAT recorder. The mics were mounted on the earpieces of the taper's glasses, facing forward. He was standing roughly 20 feet from the center of the stage. The recording is intended for playback over speakers. The Mercury Lounge's performance room is square and roughly fifty feet on a side. It was full of people. While the band's equipment was impressively large (Marshall and Trace half stacks), the sound system was much louder -- some direct sound gets through but the sound system's mono mix dominates. The sound level was literally deafening -- during the performance you couldn't hear yourself yell. It was so loud that you couldn't understand the vocals and the guitars merged into a roar. The recording though, is perfectly clear and sounds much better than the original performance. (Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton are "Double Trouble", Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section. David Grissom has toured with and backed major performers, including John Mellencamp, The Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, John Mayall and The Dixie Chicks.) FIFTH SELECTION: Title: "Scratch" Location: The Knitting Factory (NYC) Performers: Vic Chessnut and Lambchop Recorded by: Len Moskowitz Notes: This track was recorded with a set of Core Sound High-End Binaurals (DPA4061s) feeding a Zefiro Acoustics InBox. The HEBs were fitted witht their short protective grids, resulting in a slight (2 to 3 dB) emphasis centered around 15 kHz. The microphones were mounted as close to the tapers ears as possible. The InBox was connected to a Sony TCD-D8 via a Sony POC-DA12 fiber optic cable. Recording location was the first row of the balcony, three seats from the soundboard, with a direct line-of-sight to the stage and the sound system speakers. The Knitting Factory is a relatively small room, perhaps thirty feet wide by sixty deep, with a high (perhaps 30-foot) ceiling. The stage starts at the left wall and doesn't quite make it across the whole room. Vic Chessnut sat surrounded by Lambchop's 10 or 11 members on the cramped stage. Sound quality was good overall except for the definition of the bass guitar, which was rather muffled and slightly boomy. The sound system had a grounding problem -- you can hear the hum whenever the music gets quiet. Highlights: To hear what the HEBs can do, listen for when the background vocalists sing "There goes my baby..." After many listens it still provokes goosebumps. Other than the slight emphasis in the highs due to the short grids, the sound system hum and the room's bass wooliness, this recording is as good as it gets. SIXTH SELECTION: Title: "Take Me Back To Tulsa" Tommy Duncan & Bob Wills 3:13 Location: Huntsville Traditional Music Association Huntsville, Alabama February 8, 2003 Performer: Orrin Star, guitar and mandolin Joe Stratton, mandolin Recording used by kind permission of the performer Recorded by: Orrin Star Notes: Orrin Star is an award-winning guitar, banjo and mandolin player who is also funny. With music ranging from fiddle tunes to topical ballads to western swing, and storytelling both sharp and droll, he has been described as Arlo Guthrie-meets-Doc Watson. He was the 1976 National Flatpicking Champion and has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion. On his 2002/2003 Winter tour of the US South, he brought along a set of Core Sound Binaural microphones, an M-Audio DMP-2 dual microphone pre-amp, a Tascam CD-RW-5000 CD recorder; he recorded this live performance directly to CD. Accompanied by mandolinist Joe Stratton, he clipped the two CSB mics to the two vocal mic cables, very close to the vocal mic's XLR connectors (at about neck level). He uploaded the track to his Macintosh DAW, but apart from some panning and level adjustments, very little was done to the audio (e.g., no EQ). You can learn more about Orrin at his Web site (http://www.flatpick.com/ostar) and reach him via email at orhay@aol.com SEVENTH SELECTION: Title: "Fanfare For The Common Man" (Copland) 3:21 Location: A major NYC concert hall, 2004 Performer: A major American symphony orchestra Recorded by: Anonymous Notes: Recorded fourteen rows back from the stage, dead center, in one of the US's finest mid-sized concert halls by one of the US's premier symphony orchestras. The dynamics on this recording are tremendous. The tympani rolls at the conclusion are simply stupendous. The horns have an incredibly natural timbre, and the hall itself sounds gorgeous. Equipment: Core Sound's HEB 4060 mic set (using DPA 4060 capsules), Mic2496, PDAudio-CF, an HP h5155 iPAQ PDA, and Gidluck Mastering's Live2496 software recording to a 2 GB SanDisk Compact Flash memory card. The recording was made at 24-bit/44.1 KS/s; the version on the Sampler Disk was correctly converted to 16/44.1. (The location of the hall and identity of the performers can not be divulged due to union and concert hall regulations.) EIGHTH SELECTION: Title: Unknown Location: Mexicali Blues Cafe (Teaneck NJ USA) November 11, 2003 Performer: Leftover Salmon Recorderd by: Len Moskowitz (Core Sound) Notes: Equipment: Core Sound's HEB 4060 mic set (using DPA 4060 capsules), Mic2496, PDAudio-CF, an HP h5155 iPAQ PDA, and Pocco Software's Wichita software recording to a 2 GB SanDisk Compact Flash memory card. The recording was made at 24-bit/96 KS/s; the version on the Sampler Disk was correctly converted to 16/44.1.