In 10th of February 2013 I recorded a concert with Amateur symphony orchestra.
The program contained a wonderful melody “Senur” composed in four chapters by Sigurður Sævarsson. It was composed for string orchestra and obo. Both the orchestra and the soloist, Guðrún Másdóttir, played it flawless. Hereby is the first chapter of Senur without any post work.
I was pretty happy with the recording result, even though the concert hall (a church) sounded terrible for recording. It has a very harsh sound and difficult peaks in some resonance frequencies.
Over the orchestra I used a Jeclin disk with a double pair of mics, parallel MKH8020 and MKH20 in 45°+45° (as shown on the picture).
Close to the soloist there was a pair of MKH8040 and far behind in the hall was a pair of SE4400 with spaced Omni (70cm).
Past months I have got a few emails where people ask me for a sound sample with my Jecklin disk. So here are two samples, both almost the same, but one is recorded with MKH20 in 45°+45° and the other one with parallel MKH8020.
“Senur” fyrsti kafli
Sigurður Sævarsson hóf söngnám við tónlistarskólann í Keflavík undir handleiðslu Árna Sighvatssonar. Þaðan lá leiðinn í Nýja tónlistarskólann, þar sem hann nam hjá Sigurði Demetz Franzyni og Alinu Dubik. Hann lauk þaðan prófi vorið 1994. Sama ár hóf Sigurður söng- og tónlistarnám við Boston University í Bandaríkjunum, þar sem kennarar hans voru William Sharp, Charles Fussel, Sam Hendrick og Martin Amin. Hann lauk þaðan meistaraprófi í báðum greinum vorið 1997.
Helstu viðfangsefni Sigurðar hafa verið óperur og kórverk. Tveir geisladiskar haf verið gefnir út með verkum hans. Hallgrímspassía kom út árið 2010 og Missa Pacis kom út 2011. Nýjasta verk Sigurðar er Jólaóratórían sem var frumflutt 2. desember 2012.
Sigurður samdi “Senur” upphaflega fyrir óbó og strengjakvartett, að tilhlutan Eydísar Franzdóttur óbóleikara. Verkið var frumflutt á Myrkum músíkdögum 2012 og hefur verið flutt nokkrum sinnum síðan í Tékklandi og Þýskalandi. Sigurður umritaði verkið fyrir skömmu fyrir óbó og strengjasveit og er sú gerð verksins frumflutt hér.
Guðrún Másdóttir hóf að læra á óbó í Tónskóla Sigursveins D. Kristinssonar 14 ára að aldri. Hún lauk þaðan fullnaðarprófi árið 1992 undir handleiðslu Daða Kolbeinssonar. Hún sótti nær öll námskeið Sinfóníuhljómsveitar æskunnar undir stjórn Paul Zukovsky á árunum 1985-1991 og hefur nokkrum sinnum leikið með Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands. Guðrún hefur leikið með Sinfóníuhljómsveit áhugamanna óslitið frá byrjun árs 1991. Hún er í stjórn hljómsveitarinnar og hefur umsjón með vefsíðu hennar, en aðalstarf Guðrúnar er staða tölvunarfræðings hjá fyrirtækinu Mentor.
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Recording with Sennheiser MKH20
Download mp3 file. (256kbps / 9Mb)
Recording with Sennheiser MKH8020
Download mp3 file. (256kbps / 9Mb)
Recorder: Sound Devices 788
Mics: Sennheiser MKH20, MKH8020, MKH8040 and SE4400
Picture of the Jecklin disk
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Recording with MKH20(+8dB) and MKH8040.
MKH8020 and SE4400a are turned off.
If you do not see the Sound Cloud link above, please press on this link: https://soundcloud.com/fieldrecording-net/senur-chapter-one
HLJÓÐMYND - SOUNDIMAGE 
Very nice recordings. I prefer the first one (I cant tell why). Mic configuration?
Thanks Oscar.
I agree with you. I like more the first one. I think it is because MKH20 have flatter frequency respond than MKH8020 so it sounds better in this specific concert hall. I do not think the mic configuration play a big rule in this case.
The SoundCloud version sounds even better after simple post work. For me that mean I do not need to have many mics when I record with Jecklin disk in this concert hall (church).
Brilliant! We’ve waited a long time hear your recordings using a Jecklin disk and it’s been well worth the wait. I hope we’re going to hear the remaining three pieces at some point.
Thanks Des.
The Jecklin disk with MKH microphones was the key to make acceptable recording in this church and probably in most other concert hall too. Now I need to find a way to make the recording „softer“ and more natural without heavy post production.
The bad point with this disk is the size. It is too visible over orchestra. I have already make a smaller one but the big one (as describe in Wikipedia) give a better channel separation (stereo image).
SASS array is now on my construction board. I was mainly thinking to make it for nature recordings, but I have some hunch that SASS can sound even better than Jecklin disk over orchestra. http://diystereoboundarymics.blogspot.com/
About the three other pieces of „Senur“… well, the orchestra make a fault tone in the second chapter so I am afraid it will not be more from this concert. Perhaps from some other concert.
But in this concert the orchestra play also Beethoven flawlessly. I will probably try to get permission to put it on the web. Today I was record Joseph Haydn. It was also played flawlessly, so soon I think I will publish some other “Jecklin disk” recording with the Amateur Symphony Orchestra.