Recording at Decca studios

[Barry]

Shamelessly stolen from another forum, this article provides fascinating reading about the differences in recording technique, approach and 'attitude' between Decca and EMI.

http://www.polymathperspective.com/?p=2484

[RothwellAudio]

????????????????? Are you sure you got that link right? I ended up on a page about making art from found objects. :scratch:

[Barry]

????????????????? Are you sure you got that link right? I ended up on a page about making art from found objects. :scratch:

Sorry - don't know what happened there. Link corrected.

[Firebottle]

Excellent article Barry, thanks for that :thumbsup:

[topoxforddoc]

Great article. Thanks for posting the link.

[Reffc]

Fascinating Barry, thanks for posting it.

I've often wondered what the main differences were between EMI and DECCA, and have always generally preferred the DECCA sound on classical recordings. They just sound more lively and "right" to my ears and this article gives a fascinating insight into just how much their engineers cared about getting it right with a few surprises thrown in, like building some of their own recording and mixing kit, and letting the techs and engineers have free reign over the sessions. Also interesting the levels of detail and tweaking used, down to whether mics were connected with male or female connectors! Looking at the rats-tail nest of cabling, that was less important to them as positioning and flexibility counts for more and some of those cable runs must have been hundreds of feet!

The DECCA sound boxed set of CDs has been widely very positively reviewed as they were mastered from the very tapes used for producing the LPs. Their mastering stayed true to the original concept of wide dynamic range for a domestic environment. I'm lucky enough to own that boxed set which has to be one of the very best Classical compilations ever released on CD. Grab them whilst they're still available would be my tip to anyone with a love of Classical and in particular of DECCA recordings!

[topoxforddoc]

If you're interested in mic techniques, you might want to read this chaps dissertation

http://www.academia.edu/693259/An_Investigation_into_Stereo_Microphone_Techniques _and_their_Applications