A Typical Field Kit

Field Kit

We have joined the 21st century with a 24-bit Tascam HS P-82 portable digital recorder. Although we still use external Great River and Millennia Media preamplifiers and external Prism converters, the Tascam is a convenient and easy way to make two-track or small multitrack recordings in the field without having to carry a truckload of equipment. We can still drag out the DTRS recorders, and two-track or multitrack analogue recorders, and we can bring a full console for live broadcast mixes, but increasingly this is becoming our standard field kit for classical recording work. The NHT monitor speakers are being driven by a Nelson Pass amplifier design that has been built into the chassis of an old Crown D-60 amp.

In a perfect room in a perfect world, an overall microphone pair is sufficient to give perfect balances, but sadly we do not live in such a world. When acoustics are deficient and setup is limited, often the expedient of adding spot microphones to individual solo instruments is needed. This is also the case when there is a PA system involved which is altering balances in the room.

Spot microphones give a very different sound than that of the instrument at a distance. Not only is there no room sound, but the dynamics of the instrument are exaggerated. For some instruments that radiate many different sounds in different directions, a spot mike can get only part of the sound at best. Spotmikes can help a lot in a bad situation but very careful attention needs to be taken to make the spotted instrument sound like is is part of the ensemble.

Sometimes a session doesn't turn out to be exactly as expected, and having extra channels available gives us the flexibility to deal with last minute changes.