String Quartet No. 14 “Andante con moto, in G minor” Schubert

[ianaeillo]

Genre

Classical

Instruments

Cello, viola, violin

Effects

Supplemental to room reverb: Quantec Yardstick (2496) + Chase Bliss CXM-1978
EQ individual: MBSI, ProEQ, Ashly SC63
EQ Busses: Metric Halo Sonic EQ,
EQ Master Bus: Sontec mes-432d9d
Compression individual: CBS Volumax on cello
Compression Bus: Aphex Expressors
Compression Master Bus: BSS DPR-402
Misc. Make Believe MixHead
MixFX - API console. MixFX is THE BEST.

Special techniques

MS + AB + spot mics from lower stage to allow for best sight lines.
DiGiCo SD31 into a Metric Halo LIO-8mkIV

Released when

Unreleased

From Death And The Maiden. Schubert’s masterpiece, in my opinion. Written by a man who was seen as washed up, while he was dying, and he knew it. If you’ve never heard it, buckle up. Middle part is stunning and the basis for some of the work in the brilliant Succession soundtrack. Final 3:00 should bring you to tears. Whole thing is worth a listen though. Enjoy!

 

[John Pihel]

Excellent. I know every note of this piece. Good job, but sounds a bit synthetic. lacks a bit of warmth and width in the mix. But that's just my subjective opinion.

 

[ianaeillo]

Absolutely. Due to sight lines required by the union for performances, I couldn’t close mic within six feet. It was quite a tussle to get a stereo image for sure!

 

[lokeyfly]

Bravo ianaeillo. Bravisimo! I don't know the piece, but found it poignant and beautiful. i was simply amazed at all of the intense amount of detail. As I'm sure John was as well. I've met Wendy Carlos twice, and the 2nd time was with Bob Moog. So the whole synthetic thing I filter out with the dedication of articulating each passing note. The trills, and wavers of presenting this piece. That's pretty outstanding! I'll be listening to it again, with the same smile on my face.

Ashly SC63! You're messing with my fond sound reinforcement days!

 

[ianaeillo]

Bravo ianaeillo. Bravisimo! I don't know the piece, but found it poignant and beautiful. i was simply amazed at all of the intense amount of detail. As I'm sure John was as well. I've met Wendy Carlos twice, and the 2nd time was with Bob Moog. So the whole synthetic thing I filter out with the dedication of articulating each passing note. The trills, and wavers of presenting this piece. That's pretty outstanding! I'll be listening to it again, with the same smile on my face.

Ashly SC63! You're messing with my fond sound reinforcement days!

Thank you James! I always appreciate you chiming in. And let me say, these are all real instruments played on a sound stage in front of an audience in The Holland in Omaha. I'm not sure that it sounds synthetic as much as a soundstage that was mic'd from a distance on a real quartet. There's two stereo C414s in AB at 90 degrees on the fromt of the stage, a pair of Earthworks on the corners, Beyer MC930s on the edges, and the spot mics for some light definition so I feel I'm about as wide as I can go without using a phase inducing widener. I recorded and mixed it in Studio One 7 though, which is why I uploaded it here! It'll be sent off for mastering at some point, where it'll be dropped to an ATR and it'll get its "warmth" there. I mix symphonic for accuracy and definition.

And yeah! The Ashly SC63 is AMAZING. I use it ALL THE TIME. Get one again! They pop up every now and then on eBay. They are legit. I LOVE overloading it and pushing it to its redline on snare and bass. What did you use yours on? Mine is a blue face. I also love its sister, the SC50. SO GOOD.

 

[lokeyfly]

Thanks for clarifying. I think the synthetic part was simply the viola and violin playing together where the same notes just sounded off to me. Only I went back to try and locate where, and I couldn't find them. Must have been my surroundings as I want listening in my studio, but on Apple buds *which for all purposes are quite good, and (for me) act like my old NS-10's. Seriously. Anyway my bad. I could hear the live setting from the first go around, like a subtle cough, and little natural occurrences. No issue there, but I wasn't aware of what might be real, and what might be emulated so to speak in that seeting. The recording and the performance are all very soothing, and well done.

The SC63 was a staple back when I was doing sound reinforcement and working clubs in the 80's. Our band when not gigging was both supporting local and internationally noted acts. So Ashly, parametric EQ's and crossovers was synonymous with using Crown, TAD drivers, JBL, Klark-Teknik, etc. Clubs like the Mud, CBGB's, Limelight and others we worked at on many occasion. Even at times our band performed there. Good times.
I see SC80's are still available and for cheap. They were great 4-way crossovers for active systems. One such system had 18k watts of Crown PSA-2. (9k watts per side). That system could take peoples heads off. : ).

 

[ianaeillo]

That is AWESOME. That sounds like one hell of a system. Sounds like you've been all over. I'm in New York fairly often for work, is that where you still are?

I have one experience with the SC80 and it was one of the coolest example of studio ingenuity I've ever seen. I traveled to Shreveport, LA a couple of years ago for a session. Completely analog studio running a cool modified Midas Venice (which you can get for SUPER cheap nowadays). Anyway they had a pair of Ashly SC80s and they'd use them for multi-band compression. I thought it was *brilliant* and had never seen a setup like this before.
- Send signal to SC80
- SC80 four individual outputs (or eight if using both at the same time) go directly into either a Presonus ACP88 or a Klark Teknik Square One eight channel comp (I forget which one it was) 1-4 and 5-8
- 1-4 and 5-8 are sent on snakes that live behind the rack. He had a little 80s Yamaha mixer he'd bring out (like a PM450 or something) and he'd sum it together and return two channels to the Midas. Was it a bit fuzzy and imprecise? Yes. But the entire studio was a bit fuzzy and imprecise and it was *perfect*. It was really cool and if I had the rack space, I'd do something similar just to see if I could pull it off.

 

[lokeyfly]

Still here in the Big Apple. You can always message me, and we can grab lunch if you're in town.

 

[Dave25]

From Death And The Maiden. Schubert’s masterpiece, in my opinion. Written by a man who was seen as washed up, while he was dying, and he knew it. If you’ve never heard it, buckle up. Middle part is stunning and the basis for some of the work in the brilliant Succession soundtrack. Final 3:00 should bring you to tears. Whole thing is worth a listen though. Enjoy!

Really gorgeous! Great job!

And It's good to hear some classical music made with S1.

 

[Dave71]

That sounds amazing! Not just the recording but also the performance!