Sample CD, BBC Music Magazine June 2011

[geoffrey terry]

If the King has no clothes, let’s be honest enough to say so.

The June edition of the BBC Music Magazine, very generously, includes a CD on which there are BBC recordings of Stravinsky’s Firebird and Balakirev’s Tamara; an opportunity for the sound engineers to really show their metal.

Of course, as with all such productions, reports from readers will wax lyrical as to the perfection of the sound and performance.

Sorry the King in naked!

It is a reflection of the general situation regarding quality in all things. No one seems to care. Coffee, for example, has not tasted like coffee for more than 15 years. In fact walking down any main street in any city, twenty years ago, one would have been conscious of the delightful smell of coffee being roasted. Today you can stick your nose into a previously, sealed packet of coffee beans and smell nothing. Coffee is, in short, brown water, with various flavours added - but no one cares - why I ask myself?

The time has come for the truth. The sound on the BBC complimentary CD is just dreadful. A jumble of instruments all blended into a cocktail that barely resembles an orchestra. The woodwind instruments seem to be some distance from the rest of the orchestra and the string section sounds so thin that the configuration must be something of the order of 4,4,4,4,2 (1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos and double bases). The timpani are, difficult to identify as musical instruments, seeming to be thumping and bashing of some unidentifiable material rather, than wood striking stretched skin.

Many readers attend live concerts and are, of course, familiar with the sound of a live orchestra, one of the most marvelous creations of man.

We must protest. We must point out, to those in the industry who are responsible for producing such distortions of sound and then packaging them as recordings of symphony orchestras, that we know how music sounds in live performance. Technically it is possible to recreate that sound and provide the enthusiast with the opportunity of hearing an ‘acoustic mirror image’ of the original performance.

Even if your system for playing a CD is not of a very high standard, the CD you purchase, or are presented with, should be of the highest technical standard possible, a level which is not too difficult to achieve.

From my own experience.

The first orchestral concert, I was privileged to record in London’s Royal Festival Hall, was given by the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by János Ferencsik.

I entered the dimly lit, empty hall the day before the performance to ensure that I had sufficient time to prepare the equipment. I was working entirely alone and had the distinct sensation of being thrown to the lions at the Coliseum in Rome, such was the importance of the occasion for me.

I was trained as a recording engineer but left the industry, sadly disillusioned with the techniques employed by the senior engineers with whom I worked. During recording sessions I had devised my own technique and when I had the great joy of being invited to travel with orchestras from Eastern Europe, during their visits to the UK, I was permitted to record the concerts and took advantage of the situation to experiment with my beliefs.
It had been an impossible dream, that of having the freedom to put into practice a theory I held for many years; a theory based on scientific fact.

Regardless of how technically advanced the equipment; the most critically important decision in the recording process, is that of microphone placement. If the choice is wrong then no amount of adjustment to the signal during recording, or subsequent electronic manipulation can correct the error.
Sound generated by a symphony orchestra moves, predominantly, in an upward direction, carried on the rising warm air generated by the musicians and vibration of the instruments being played. In addition the conductor’s direction is based upon what he hears from his position on the podium. Microphone positioning is, therefore, obvious. There have been one or two forward thinking engineers who have placed just two microphones above the orchestra but, to the best of my knowledge, in all instances the microphones were too far forward to take advantage of the ‘rising air’ phenomenon.

On the day before the RFH concert there were no events programmed and I positioned my recording equipment in a commentators box on the side of the stage. The next step was to hang the microphones - just two of them, a decision founded upon the principal that we each have only two ears.
It is very important to remember that when more than two microphones are used the output signals are, invariably and constantly adjusted by the balance engineer; a very negative result because the work of the conductor is then compromised. In addition, the misdemeanor is then compounded by further electronic adjustments, introduced during and after the recording process. In fact the conductor’s prime responsibilities, those of controlling balance, dynamics and tempo are all overridden by the recording engineers, as I have witnessed, with a certain amount of horror during my career. I cannot help but wonder, what is the point of adding the name of the conductor to the published information when the sound of the orchestra was actually controlled by the recording engineers! A most unsatisfactory situation.

Generally speaking, following the recording, human errors are generally corrected in the editing process, misleading the listener into believing that the orchestra is superhuman and makes no mistakes. There can be as many as 200 edits in a single symphony to ‘perfect’ the performance. The ambient sound can be changed, reverberation can be added - and normally is, in excess; in fact the possibilities are endless.
BUT, why make a recording of music?

Considering the days before such a possibility existed, one can just imagine how the great composers would have been delighted to hear their works reproduced electronically. Initially the desire must have been to recreate the sound precisely as heard in the original performance. That was my earnest desire as a young man; now, 75 years of age, I have spent my entire life working and living for music and am pleased to say that I strongly believe I have achieved my goal of creating that, apparently illusive, mirror image.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s I traveled with leading orchestras from, the then, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and East Germany, recording many of the concerts at various venues. I also took my equipment to Eastern Europe and made recordings of live concerts there.
Having tried and proven the technique, I employed precisely the same process in every situation and venue, even for grand opera. I have a recording of two operas I recorded for the impresario Adolf Borsdorf, once again I used just two microphones to capture soloists, a chorus and orchestra. I would be very happy to have my recording of ‘La Force del Destino’ compared with any others that exist. I am confident that my recording would demonstrate a more natural and even balance of sound.

For the concert by the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, the position of the instruments on the stage was considered a conventional layout for the 1960s. There were sixteen first violins, front and left of the conductor, then sixteen second violins, sixteen violas and sixteen cellos, completing the arc to the conductor’s right. Behind the strings sat the woodwind and brass, with the two harps to the left, behind the violins. The percussion instruments were established behind the brass and the double basses behind the cellos.

I decided it imperative that the microphones be suspended and, considering that the conductor balances the instruments and dynamics from his central position, the optimum position for the microphones would be approximately 3 metres above the stage, approximately 4 metres apart and about 1 metre in front of the orchestra.

Having determined the position of the two microphones I set about the task of climbing across the ceiling of the hall to the area above the stage, where a series of holes already existed. I was delighted to find two holes precisely where I wished to hang the microphones.

During the rehearsal I tried other locations in the general area but found the original selection to be optimum and proceeded to make some recording tests during the rehearsal. The results were exactly as I had imagined. Primarily the recording produced a full body of string sound, with different techniques the strings, in particular, can sound very thin. The woodwind, brass and percussion were perfectly balanced and the recorded sound test not only pleased me but amazed both myself and maestro Ferencsik.

The recordings I made, all those years ago, have been a great joy to me and have been highly praised by musician friends of mine. Three years ago I decided that, with my demise, all the material would be lost forever, and I felt that the recordings should be made available to the music loving public, who should also be made aware of how natural recorded sound can be.

As a result I founded Orchestral Concert CDs, in 2008, and have, to date, published thirteen CDs, created from the live concert recordings I made.

There has been very high praise from the critics in such publications as Forum, International record review, American Record Guide, Music Web International, Audiophile Audition, Norman Lebrech etc. However, there is only one BBC Music Magazine and when a critic states that my recording of Alfredo Campoli and Peter Katin demonstrates the finest sound of a violin that exists I think that the BBC needs to know of that and my other recordings.

Hello BBC. I have written to you several times, I have sent sample CDs, I have even written to the DG. You are not interested. Is it because I am not HMV? Is it because it would not be convenient to have a small label producing better sound than the major publishers, whom you have praised so highly?

I cast down the gauntlet.

I am prepared to have my recordings compared with any others that exist, of the same works. Let honest, intelligent music lovers listen and hear the difference.

The technique is no secret. In fact I would be delighted if the dominant recording companies and even the BBC, who did produce some wonderful sound forty years ago, during the Golden Age of sound, were to use my carefully considered microphone placment technique. There would then be a better sound available to us all.

It may be that there is a better technique available, I have not come across it, but would happily take off my hat in admiration if there is.

My bold claims can be verified, even by simple comparison of sound samples on internet. I have made available, on my web page, generous, high quality sound samples which can easily be compared with other recordings of the same works. I am confident that the difference would be immediately obvious. Having actual copies of the CDs currently available in my small but specialized catalogue could only give satisfaction. www.occds.org

[Philidor]

Great to see you Geoffrey! Glad you're still fighting the good fight.

[geoffrey terry]

Hi Philidor,

Thanks for your kind welcome, I trust you are both well and not suffering too much from the rapid decline of life as we knew it.
I sometimes think we are the only two who care, you will note that there have been quite a number of visitors to the thread and no comments; I expected a torrent of insults, even that would get the movement off the ground. Let's hope.

Regards
Geoffrey

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by geoffrey terry

Hi Philidor,

Thanks for your kind welcome, I trust you are both well and not suffering too much from the rapid decline of life as we knew it.
I sometimes think we are the only two who care, you will note that there have been quite a number of visitors to the thread and no comments; I expected a torrent of insults, even that would get the movement off the ground. Let's hope.

Regards
Geoffrey

You're too civilized and rational, that's the problem. To get insults flowing on social media you need to be unpleasant, dogmatic and stupid... or certainly ignorant... or (ideally) both.

Oh, and keep in mind that those likely to insult you have the attention span of a bedbug.

All of which, sadly, rules out 99% of Brightcecilia members.

[Octandres]

On the June BBC Music Magazine disc I fully concur, very disappointing. I buy the magazine 2 or 3 times a year based on the potential interest of the disc - this one should have been spectacular and falls very flat. However they can get it right, for example the live Mahler 7th with Noseda/BBC Philharmonic from last year. What riles me is the restricted repertoire on these discs given the wealth of recordings the BBC has stashed in its vaults - the magazine was much more adventurous in its early years. So certainly let's have great sound, a sine qua non, but also rather more imagination in the content.

Your site and recordings look most interesting - have you considered making them available as 16bit/44.1KHz FLAC downloads ? The conversion/encoding (EAC etc.) should not compromise the sound quality and the download convenience may encourage more takeup.

[geoffrey terry]

Hello Octandres,

Thank you for your comment. I apologies for not being able to respond earlier; having been been heavily involved in becoming a great grandfather - a traumatic experience indeed.
I appreciate your having taken the time and trouble to comment because when there is no response to a post the conclusion can only be that the proposition is either uninteresting or irrelevant.
There is one important point to highlight in the context of our discussion and that relates to the apparent complacency of the majority of CD consumers. The fact that so many CDs are produced and sold, without attention being drawn to the deplorable sound quality, when that is the case, suggests that sound quality is of minor importance.
It's extraordinary that, since it is a relatively simple process to record sound at a standard approaching the original live experience, why engineers go to such trouble and expence to produce something that is 'so electronic'. A gaggle of technicians rushing around placing microphones in front of every instrument, feeding a spaghetti junction of cables into a mixing panel, then employing a highly skilled balance engineer to study the score and adjust the faders, (individual volume controls for each of the microphones), as he determines the composer envisaged.
It sounds, and is, a very expensive operation. An operation that is both unnecessary and detrimental to the end product.
I would like to propose an example of sound captured in the Royal Festival Hall using just two microphone. The orchestra was conducted by the conductor, no reverberation was added and the recording was made in 1967. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJm6650LBAA
There are other examples of sound recorded, utilising the same technique, available on www.occds.org, try to listen on headphones if you PC is not connected to your Hi Fi system.
Regarding the question of downloads. I would be pleased to be in a position to add that service to my operation, however, and unfortunately, having devoted virtually all my working days, for the past three years, to losing money in the process of endeavoring to make high quality sound recordings of live concert recordings available, by producing CDs. My frustration just grows and grows with the complete lack of interest and virtually no sales as a result.
I am about to issue a recording of the Symphony no 10 by Shostakovitch, in my opinion it is the finest recording that will be available and yet I know that just a handful of copies will be sold.
Please look at the reviews page on my website and see the comments on the CDs I have already issued, made by leading critics. I think my claims are vindicated.
You might be interested to know that when 'Fanfare' reviewed my recording of Alfredo Campoli and Peter Katin, and suggested that it was the most faithful recording of such a combination that exists, just three copies of the CD were sold.
In short I regret that I can do no more, probably the Shostakovitch will be the last issue.
Sony & HMV continue to thrive on free advertising from the likes of the BBC who would under no circumstances make any reference to a new unknown label, thereby contravening their strict code of conduct and as such must ignore such irrelevant sources.
Sorry to go on, it is a subject that has occupied my entire 75 years and I continue to bark at the heals of the 'important ones' to no avail.
Geoffrey