Classical Recording

Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition is the

authoritative guide to all aspects of recording acoustic classical
music. Offering detailed descriptions, diagrams, and photographs of
fundamental recording techniques such as the Decca Tree, this book
offers a comprehensive overview of the essential skills involved in
successfully producing a classical recording. Written by engineers
with years of experience working for Decca and Abbey Road Studios
and as freelancers, Classical Recording equips the student, the
interested amateur, and the practising professional with the required
knowledge and confidence to tackle everything from solo piano to
opera.

Caroline Haigh grew up with equal love for music, maths, and
physics and combined study of all of them on the Tonmeister course
at the University of Surrey. She began her career in classical post-
production working for Decca during her final year at university, and
she stayed there for several years before moving around the corner to
Abbey Road Studios (EMI) in 1996. At both Decca and EMI, she
gained experience with countless major classical artists and became a
sought-after and skilful editor, working on several Grammy award–
winning albums, including Les Troyens (Decca – OSM/Dutoit), Best
Opera 1995. Having enjoyed giving guest seminars at the University
of Surrey during her time at Abbey Road, Caroline was recruited to
teach on the Tonmeister course on a permanent basis from 2009. She
currently teaches recording techniques, production/post-production
skills, and electro-acoustics (microphones), and she continues to
work as a freelance classical editor.

John Dunkerley is one of the world’s most highly respected and

emulated classical recording engineers. Throughout a long career at
Decca and then as a freelancer, his recordings have been renowned
for their ravishingly beautiful sound and attention to detail. He has
worked with almost all the major artists of the last 40 years and has
made over a thousand CDs, and his recordings have earned over 15
Grammy awards. John is one of the last engineers alive to have learnt
his craft from the great Kenneth Wilkinson, the inventor of many of
the techniques that underpin the classical recording art. John teaches
workshops at the University of Surrey, at the Banff Centre, and at the
Abbey Road Institute.

Mark Rogers studied on the Tonmeister course at the University of

Surrey. He began his career working with John Dunkerley at Decca,
and then spent nine years around the corner at EMI’s Abbey Road
Studios, where he was the chief technical engineer for Studio One,
famous for its orchestral and film score recordings. Here he worked
with hundreds of different producers and engineers and gained unique
insight into the huge variety of techniques used in classical recording.
In 2000 he moved to a management role at Warner Music, and after
four years left to become a freelance recording producer, engineer,
and musician. Since then he has worked for a wide variety of clients,
including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and back where he
started at Decca. His recordings have won many accolades, including
a Grammy award in 2009. Mark is a visiting lecturer at the University
of Surrey.
AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY PRESENTS…
www.aes.org

Editorial Board
Chair: Francis Rumsey, Logophon Ltd.
Hyun Kook Lee, University of Huddersfield
Natanya Ford, University of West England
Kyle Snyder, University of Michigan

Hack Audio: An Introduction to Computer Programming and Digital

Signal Processing in MATLAB
Eric Tarr

Loudspeakers: For Music Recording and Reproduction

Philip Newell and Keith Holland

Beep to Boom: The Development of Advanced Runtime Sound

Systems for Games and Extended Reality
Simon N. Goodwin

Intelligent Music Production

Brecht De Man, Ryan Stables, and Joshua D. Reiss

Women in Audio
Leslie Gaston-Bird

Audio Metering: Measurements, Standards and Practice

Eddy B. Brixen

Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition

Caroline Haigh, John Dunkerley, and Mark Rogers

The MIDI Manual 4e: A Practical Guide to MIDI within Modern

Music Production
David Miles Huber

For more information about this series, please visit:

www.routledge.com/Audio-Engineering-Society-Presents/book-
series/AES
Classical Recording

A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition

Caroline Haigh, John Dunkerley,

and Mark Rogers
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an

informa business

© 2021 Caroline Haigh, John Dunkerley, and Mark Rogers

The right of Caroline Haigh, John Dunkerley, and Mark

Rogers to be identified as authors of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be

trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Haigh, Caroline, author. | Dunkerley, John, author. |
Rogers, Mark (Sound engineer), author. | Audio
Engineering Society, editor.
Title: Classical recording : a practical guide in the Decca
tradition / Caroline Haigh, John Dunkerley, and Mark
Rogers.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge,
2021. | Series: Audio Engineering Society presents... |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020018477 | ISBN 9780367321338
(hbk) | ISBN 9780367312800 (pbk) | ISBN
9780429316852 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Sound—Recording and reproducing. |
Decca Music Group. | Music.
Classification: LCC TK7881.4 .H35 2021 | DDC
621.389/32—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018477

ISBN: 978-0-367-32133-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-31280-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-31685-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Visit the eResources: www.routledge.com/9780367312800

To the memories of Kenneth Wilkinson and Jimmy Lock for
their wisdom, patience, and understanding, and to all the
Decca family who went before to show us the way.

Also to our families: Alan, Jonathan, Anna, Claire, Isaac,

and Milly with thanks for their support.
Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Glossary of terms, acronyms, and abbreviations
Glossary of recording attributes

PART I

Before recording

1 Acoustics and the recording venue

1.1 Brief introduction to room acoustics
1.2 What to be aware of when looking at a
venue
1.3 What can you do to help with poor
acoustics?

2 Studio techniques and working on location

2.1 Equipment
2.2 Practicalities at the recording venue
 2.3 Rigging microphones and running cables
2.4 The control room
2.5 Studio communications: talkback,
telephones, and cue lights
2.6 Optimising recording workflow
2.7 Running the session

PART II

Recording

3 Basic two-microphone stereo techniques

3.1 Co-incident microphone techniques
3.2 Spaced omnis
3.3 Spaced and angled cardioids

4 Solo instruments
4.1 Classical guitar and flamenco guitar
4.2 Harp
4.3 Violin
4.4 Cello
4.5 Woodwinds
4.6 Harpsichord

5 The piano
5.1 The nature of the sound of a piano
5.2 The physical layout of a grand piano
5.3 The piano lid
 5.4 Recording aims
5.5 Recording a solo piano: the spaced pair
5.6 The Decca piano technique
5.7 Techniques for other scenarios
5.8 Practical issues when recording pianos

6 Voice: solo and accompanied

6.1 The singer in a recording session
6.2 The classical voice and microphone
placement
6.3 Using two microphones on the voice
6.4 Microphone choice
6.5 Use of ambient pairs
6.6 Concert recording layout
6.7 Studio recording and reverse concert
positions
6.8 Classical voice and lute/theorbo/guitar
6.9 Mixing and fader riding for a singer

7 Solo instruments and piano

7.1 Violin and piano in concert
7.2 Violin and piano: studio layout
7.3 Cello and piano in concert
7.4 Cello and piano: studio layout
7.5 Woodwind and piano
7.6 Brass and piano
8 The Decca Tree
8.1 What is the Decca Tree?
8.2 The three- and five-microphone trees
8.3 The four-microphone Decca Tree
8.4 Microphones for the Decca Tree
8.5 Mounting the tree
8.6 Notes on the evolution of the Decca Tree

9 Ancillary microphones
9.1 What do we mean by ‘ancillary’?
9.2 Perception of orchestral depth and
perspective
9.3 General notes on placement of ancillary
microphones
9.4 Panning and levels of ancillary
microphones
9.5 Woodwinds
9.6 Brass
9.7 Percussion
9.8 Double bass section
9.9 Other string sectional microphones
9.10 Harp
9.11 Celeste

10 Surround sound techniques

10.1 Purpose of surround sound in classical
music recording
 10.2 Panning a Decca Tree in 5.1 surround
10.3 Natural reverberation: additional
microphones for 5.1 surround
10.4 Artificial reverberation in 5.1 surround
10.5 Offstage effects in surround: location of
sources behind the listener
10.6 Object-based audio: Dolby Atmos

11 Solo instruments and orchestra

11.1 Piano concerto: studio layouts
11.2 Single piano concerto: concert layout
11.3 Piano concerto conducted from the
keyboard
11.4 A note on the size of the grand piano
11.5 Violin concerto: studio layouts
11.6 Violin concerto: concert layout
11.7 Wind concertos: studio and concert
layouts
11.8 Cello concerto: studio and concert
layouts
11.9 Guitar concerto: studio layout
11.10 Brass concertos: studio and concert
layouts
11.11 Percussion concertos

12 Chamber ensembles
12.1 String quartet in studio layout
 12.2 String quartet in concert
12.3 Piano quintet: studio and concert
techniques
12.4 Piano quintet: reverse-seated studio
position
12.5 Piano trio: studio and concert techniques
12.6 Small wind ensembles: studio or concert
layout

13 Wind, brass, and percussion bands

13.1 A note about dynamic range and ear
protection
13.2 Large wind ensembles
13.3 Classical brass ensemble
13.4 Brass band
13.5 Percussion ensembles

14 Organ
14.1 Brief introduction to the pipe organ
14.2 Doing a venue reconnoitre
14.3 Microphone choices, stands, and cable
runs
14.4 Basic technique: straightforward organ
layout
14.5 Organs with pipe divisions in several
locations
 14.6 Interesting acoustic effects and other
awkward corners
14.7 Monitoring limitations
14.8 Communication: talk microphone
14.9 Noise
14.10 Electronic organs
14.11 Organ with orchestra: overdubbing or
simultaneous recording
14.12 Organ pitch
14.13 Sampled organs

15 Choirs
15.1 General notes on microphone choice and
placement
15.2 Choir spacing
15.3 Small choir
15.4 The choral society
15.5 Choral society with soloists and organ in
concert
15.6 Antiphonal church choir

16 Solo voice, orchestra, and choir

16.1 Orchestra and choir
16.2 Orchestra and choir with stationary
soloists
16.3 Recording live opera for cinema, DVD,
TV, radio, or CD
 16.4 Recording live opera at the Royal Opera
House: microphone set-ups
16.5 Mixing opera to 5.1 surround for cinema

PART III

After the recording session

17 Mixing
17.1 Choosing and blending microphone
sources into a static balance
17.2 Riding levels on ancillary microphones
17.3 Use of EQ and high-pass filters
17.4 Use of delays
17.5 Reverb: natural and artificial
17.6 Riding overall levels

18 Editing and post-production

18.1 Aims and philosophy of editing
18.2 Requirements of a classical editing system
18.3 Source-destination editing
18.4 Classical post-production workflow
18.5 Refining edits: how to solve problems and
maintain musical flow
18.6 Notes on working with different
instruments
18.7 Overdubbing scenarios
 18.8 Emergency measures: sampling piano
notes and note removal
18.9 Professional finish: joining into room
tone

19 Mastering
19.1 Noise removal
19.2 Changing the sound
19.3 Tops and tails: room tone, breaths, noises,
and fades
19.4 Levels between tracks, compression, and
loudness meters
19.5 Placing track markers for CD mastering

Appendices

Appendix 1 Opera recording: practices at Decca from

the 1950s to the 1990s
Appendix 2 Cheaper alternatives to classic
microphones
Appendix 3 Original session set-up sheets
Appendix 4 Orchestral layout notation

Bibliography and further reading

Index
Acknowledgements

We would like to offer our grateful thanks to the many friends and
colleagues who have helped us out with fact-checking, opinions,
conversations, photographs, drawings, and cups of tea.
Particular thanks go to Jonathan Allen; Peter Cobbin and Kirsty
Whalley; Richard Hale; James Shannon; Simon Eadon; Jonathan
Willcocks; Edward Weston (Decca); Elena Turrin (Fazioli); Dr
Russell Mason, Alan Haigh, and Prof. Dave Fisher (University of
Surrey); Hannah Fitzgerald and Carlos Lellis (Abbey Road Institute);
Anja Zoll-Khan, Steven Zissler, Giacomo Carabellese, Ross Hendrie,
and Mark Thackeray (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden); Martin
Schneider (Neumann GmbH); Richard Evans (Trinity School,
Croydon); Emma Button, Crispin Ward, and Simon Growcott
(University of Chichester); Paul Mortimer and Dominique Brulhart
(Merging Technologies); Jeremy Powell (Vectorworks); Shannon
Neil and Hannah Rowe (Focal Press); our copy editor, Jennifer
Fester; and production editor, Abigail Stanley.
Some of the drawings in this book include images that are
representations created in Vectorworks software by Vectorworks,
Inc., and some include images used and adapted with kind permission
of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Introduction

Our philosophy of recording

The authors of this book have known each other for over 30 years, and
having all spent years at both Decca and EMI at different times, it is
perhaps unsurprising that our philosophy of recording classical music has
become something that we have in common.

At the core of this is the belief that the recording itself should serve and
enhance the music at all times. A good recording should work with the
performers and composer to excite and engage the listener and enable the
sort of emotional involvement that is experienced in a live performance.
The whole enterprise should have musical communication at its heart: we
all love music; it is why we do what we do.

To pursue only the accurate spatial reproduction of a concert as experienced

from the ‘best seat in the house’ is to miss opportunities to make the
listener sit up and listen. A recording is best regarded as a different medium
to a live performance, and why should the recorded experience not aim to
be better than sitting in the concert hall with our eyes closed? At a concert,
we have many visual cues which affect our perception of the music; we can
see who is playing, where they are sitting, we can see the soloists, how big
the hall is – all these things serve to engage us in the experience. When we
shut our eyes, these visual cues are no longer available and our perception
of the sound is altered. If we want to make a recording that draws the
listener in, we have to find ways to recreate these cues in audio form and
reactivate the energising sense of engagement that we experience in a live
performance – the upper strings should soar, the basses should be warm
with rosin flying off their bows, the brass should sparkle and thrill, and the
tone colours of the woodwinds should come through as beautiful,
individual highlights.

There are plenty of books dealing with recording one instrument at a time
or with recording instruments that are well isolated from one another, as in
a pop studio. In these situations, avoidance of spill of one source onto
another’s microphone is a central concern so that instruments can be
processed separately. But when recording classical music, with all the
players together in a live space, the key to success is in embracing spill,
accepting its inevitability, and learning to blend and balance the different
microphones to create the sound that you want. In this way, it is more akin
to watercolour painting than colouring in a line drawing.

At the core of this recording approach is the creation of a sense of a real

space in which the performers are situated. This does not mean it has to be
simply a reproduction of a real space exactly as we find it, but it can be
enhanced or created by artificial means as long as it has the characteristics
of a real space. This includes achieving a sense of depth with larger sources
such as orchestra or choir, where some performers feel closer to the listener
than others. We are aiming for an impression of space, depth, and clarity so
that the music can speak as the composer and performers intended. The
result must be believable even if it contains a great deal of artifice.

In a good classical recording, we never want to become aware of individual

microphones at work, dragging a single instrument too far into the
foreground and reducing it to a point source, or of artificial reverb added
like a layer of thick varnish over a painting, obscuring detail and tone
colours. Blending several microphone sources and reverb is a key part of
the craft, and no amount of expensive gear will make up for a lack of skill
in balancing. In an interview given to Andrew Achenbach for International
Classical Record Collector (ICRC), Richard Itter (Lyrita Records) said:

We tend to forget today that the great art of the engineer is in the balancing
… the equipment – be it analogue, digital or come what may – is
secondary; it is the skill in the placing of those microphones and balancing
on the desks that is the true art, and it was an art that the folk at Decca had
down to a tee.1

The aims of this book

In this book we will introduce a number of guiding principles for the
recording of classical music, and we will also reassure the reader that
excellent results can be obtained using good technique with relatively
inexpensive equipment. Our aim is to cover some good starting points for
the recording of all the common classical ensembles; we have chosen not to
cover every single possible technique but to present a selection that is
inevitably subjective. It is not our intention to be prescriptive but rather to
help the engineer understand what works and why, and how to avoid the
most common pitfalls. We will suggest core techniques for many scenarios,
with the proviso that this might have to be adapted in the hall you find
yourself in or with the players that you have. At this point, we will then
suggest what you should be listening for and what steps might be taken to
correct things. The overall aim is to give practical, achievable advice for
both live and studio scenarios, with consideration given to being visually
discreet when a concert is being filmed. At all times the emphasis will be
on principles and technique and not on specific pieces of expensive
equipment. Following on from recording, the chapters on post-production
work will guide you through the pitfalls of getting your recording from the
studio takes to a final polished product, including editing, noise removal,
and mastering.

Our target readers

The book is intended for readers who already have some recording
knowledge, although not necessarily in the classical field. These would
include students at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels, home
recording enthusiasts who might want to also get out and record larger-
scale acoustic music such as choral society events and school orchestral
concerts, and professionals who want to explore other approaches to
recording.

What is not covered

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with microphone types (condenser,
dynamic, and ribbon) and directivity patterns (cardioid, omnidirectional,
figure of eight, etc.) and is able to plug in microphones, activate phantom
power when needed, and get a signal into and through a mixing desk or
recording DAW.
eResources
Spotify playlists for each chapter containing both referenced recordings and
illustrative listening can be found at www.routledge.com/9780367312800

Note
1International Classical Record Collector (ICRC) No 18, Autumn 1999,
pp34–40
Article: Lyrita, 40 Years On
Author: Andrew Achenbach interviewing Richard Itter
Glossary of terms, acronyms, and abbreviations

0 dBFS 0 dB full scale – the highest level on a digital meter, representing

full digital modulation.

AB pair A pair of microphones for recording stereo that are spaced apart.

AFL After fade listen – a means of listening to an individual audio signal at

the level it is being used in the mix without disturbing the mix bus output.
Useful for fault finding while in record.

Cardioid A microphone that picks up sound primarily from its front axis
and discriminates against sounds from the rear with reduced output at the
sides. The name is from its ‘heart-shaped’ polar response pattern.

Condenser A microphone that uses a variable capacitor as its transducer

and requires phantom power or another power supply. They are the most
common microphone type used for classical recording (ribbon microphones
are the second) because of their smoother and more extended frequency
responses and better transient responses when compared with dynamic
microphones (which are not normally used for classical recording).

DAW Digital audio workstation – a computer, audio interface, and software

programme for recording and editing.

EQ Abbreviation of ‘equalisation’

Fig of 8 Microphone with a figure-of-eight polar response: it picks up

sound from sources in front and behind in equal amounts whilst
discriminating against sounds arriving from the sides. The electrical output
produced by a sound source located in front of the microphone will be of
the opposite polarity to that produced by the same source located behind
the microphone. This is because the diaphragm will move in the opposite
direction, causing the transducer to produce a positive voltage in one case
and a negative one in the other.
HPF High-pass filter – a filter that removes low frequencies. They are
frequently used in classical recording to remove room rumble, to clean up
low-frequency spill from a higher-pitched soloist’s microphone(s), and to
avoid the muddying build-up of layers of lower frequencies when using a
lot of microphones.

LUFS Loudness units relative to full scale – loudness units are a measure
of the perceived ‘loudness’ of a whole programme. See section 19.4.3.

NOS Nederlandsche Omroep Stichting – a stereo recording technique using

spaced and angled cardioids; see section 3.3.

Omni Omnidirectional microphone – one that picks up sound equally from

all around. It will show gradually reduced output at the rear and sides at
higher frequencies due to the microphone itself forming an obstacle to
shorter wavelengths.

ORTF Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française – a stereo recording

technique using spaced and angled cardioids; see section 3.3.

PFL Pre fade listen – a means of listening to an individual audio signal

when it is not currently faded up but without disturbing the mix bus output.
Useful in live work for checking that a signal is the correct one before
fading it up.

Proximity effect The increase in low-frequency output from a microphone

as it is moved closer to a source. It is not exhibited by omnis but only by
directional microphones, such as cardioids and fig of 8s.

Ribbon A microphone that uses a ribbon of aluminium suspended in a

magnetic field as its transducer. They have a smooth frequency response
with a gentle, early high-frequency roll-off and a figure-of-eight polar
response. They are easily damaged by air movement and wind.

Solo-in-place A means of listening to an individual audio signal in a mix

that works by cutting all the other channels. It will affect the mix bus
output, and should not be used while in record or when broadcasting.
SPL Sound pressure level relative to a specified reference level. Measured
in decibels (dB), SPL is the objective level of a sound source. The
subjective perception of ‘loudness’ is related not only to SPL but also to
frequency content and duration.

XLR connector A universal professional connector for microphones and

other audio equipment. Most commonly found in a 3-pin form for balanced
lines.

XY pair A pair of microphones for recording stereo that are arranged to

have their capsules as close together as possible (co-incident pair).
Glossary of recording attributes

Describing aspects of audio with words can be quite tricky, but here goes:

Focus Image stability and concentration in one place. If you shut your eyes,
can you locate the instrument very precisely, more generally but in a
particular direction, or not at all?

Bloom The important sense of the depth and size of the real space the
player is in. The early reflections and the reverb time will convey
information about the nature of the room or hall and the space around the
player. This translates into a sense of the instrument not being a pinpoint
location in the recorded image but having some size and feeling of ‘air’
around it.

Depth This is the perception of distance from the front to the back of the
ensemble. Performers at the rear will tend to sound more reverberant, with
some loss of high frequency, and produce less ‘close’ instrumental noise
such as key noise, bow noise, and breathing. They will also have a
narrower image width if they are an instrument with any sort of size or a
section taken as a whole.

Detail Details of the instrument’s sound/noises, such as you get from

placing a microphone closer. There needs to be an appropriate amount of
detail for the distance from the listener: the instrument should not be pulled
out of its context in an ensemble by picking up too much in the way of
close noises.

Width The amount of space between the loudspeakers that is filled by the
recorded image. This works very differently on headphones, and
loudspeaker monitoring is needed to judge this well.