AES 2018INT CONFERENCE
[SPATIAL REPRODUCTION-Aesthetics and Science] TOKYO JAPAN
Workshop-01―part-01PREPRINT
「Consideration of Height ch miking along with music style」
Mick Sawaguchi FM of AES. C.E.O UNAMAS Label
Abstract
In this workshop, we will present a real world of Immersive Surround Production Practices by music album. Mick Sawaguchi will describe a relationship between height ch miking and Music style. We will be in charge of 75 minutes workshop with slides and playback that make it useful for participants.
From Mick Sawaguchi 4 time award wining producer engineer, his UNAMAS Label has been doing immersive sound productions from 2014 on 9.1 ch to 11.1 ch classical music production at Ohga Hall Karuizawa.
He introduce this recording concept by ART - TECHNOLOGY –and ENGINEERING that show you immersive surround miking and various heights miking to optimized music style and delivered format.
Overview:
I will introduce the relationship between the height miking and style of music on a Immersive Surround (9.1CH or 11.1 CH) productions. The UNAMAS Label has been released 7 albums, which based on Ohga Hall from 2014 to the present.
Since it is divided into four types of height / miking roughly, I introduce each concept and production examples and demonstration playback. This time it is not the purpose to listen to music itself, so I will do the demonstration in about 6 minutes each.
1 Concept of height channel miking
1-1 Immersive Surround is effective in beautiful halls, churches and historical buildings, and this is a goal to reproduction of a natural spherical sound field to the listeners.
In the recording studio, which originally designed to the dead, the creative type Immersive Surround approach will be effective. To utilizes the sound but assembles the instrument sound source in a hemisphere is effective. For this purpose, it is key to create a musical composition, which expresses a definite completed form at the stage of composition from the scratch.
1-2 Miking of the height channel is flexible from miking depending on what music are produced and there is no need to always stick to fixed array · miking.
However, Miking adopts a certain principle and an arrangement that considers phase and delay.
1-3 the directivity of the microphone used for height
● Omni
● Wide cardioid
● Cardioid
Selections of these are by the difference between the sound field and music style. There are studies that super directivity is effective among the various Height · Miking research in Europe, but this is simply a way of thinking that gives priority to separating from the main channel, the sound quality of the microphone used Hemispherical surfaces do not hold as music unless their characteristics are examined.
2 Basic recording systems
The classic recording system at Ohga Hall has evolved since the beginning of 2014. The current basic recording system will be introduced below.
It consists of 7.1ch+4ch as total.
The 7.1ch divides 3 element that are 5ch main, 2ch SL-SR and LFE spot microphone.
3 Miking of base channel "UNAMAS flow subjective surround"
Surround expressions in music so far .It has been roughly divided into 3 sound designs.
● Realistic surround ex: hall recording. Live concert
● Creative Independent Surround ex: pops contemporary music Electric music
● All around Wall Surround
Each has advantages and disadvantages. The realistic surround is mainly adopted in classical and live concerts, the main sound field is on the front 3 CH, and the rear CH sounds only in the ambience sound. The creative surround is an approach to reconstruct the sound field by sorting each instrument that has recorded multitrack in the studio etc. mix by surround. The two disadvantages are said to be as follows.
● Because there is no real sound on the rear, the realistic surround sounds like a response from a listener saying
"It is not much different from stereo."
● In creative surround, "When you hear a tight sound all the way around, you get tired from listening for a long
time"
Subjective Surround
So UNAMAS examined how to combine the merit of the two, and there are real sounds on all channels, but using the bleedings each other and not feel tight real sound. I challenged a design called a subjective sound field (an artist surrounding the listener) only possible at art of recording. The hint of this idea is UNAHQ 1009 "After Glow" album that I made at Onkyo House Music Studio in April 2013. It was designed, which arranged the string quartet around the solo piano, was also convincing as surround music, so we decided to proceed further.
Miking of the current main channel (called Bets etc.) is based on 7.1 CH as shown below. It is Miking of the 4CH height channel as described below to handle this upper part, and it becomes 11 · 1 CH as a whole.
4 4 types of height -channel miking and musical expression
In the Immersive Surround, UNAMAS is working on an approach to realize the beauty of Hall's reverb with music, so to speak, a natural acoustic in a hemisphere. Here, we will introduce the relationship between Height · Mi king and style of music set at various points in the Ohga Hall.
In the future, I would like to work on a creative type of Immersive Surround where a real sound exists in the height channel by teaming with a talented composer.
４－１ UNAHQ 2007 J.S.Bach The Art of Fugue 2015 May
A: In February 2014, I started producing clasical albums at Ohga Hall, and when recording "Four Seasons" which became my first work, it is important to verify what the sound of the hall's height channel is like in the string quartet. We set a 4-meter height miking for the ceiling, this will be an idea carried out at After Glow. When I playback it at a later at My studio, I can find that a very well-balanced sound is in the vicinity of the ceiling and plan to introduce it in the next recording of The Art of Fugue Project.
B: Why target the ceiling reflected sound on the stage with [The Art of Fugue]?
The form of Fugue is called a "monophonic", a form like a puzzle of sound that each instrument is played independently according to a certain rule, unlike the "polyphonic" form, which emits a beautiful harmony from the ensemble to the space.
There are three large reflection plates at the upper part of the stage of the Ohga Hall, and it has a structure that makes it easy for people to hear their performances to the artists by reflection from the ceiling. Fugue's main body is the sound of single instruments so it is better to capture this early reflection and reinforce the music rather than capturing the rich ensemble sound that reverb in the halls. As a result of examining how it might be, as a result of such a ceiling oriented height miking, it was made.
At this time, I tried to arrange the height channel with MID - Layer and TOP - Layer as in two layers configuration. "This is because that the expression of the hemispherical surface would appear more dense." However, when playing back with 3 layers (base-ch, mid layer and top layer), the sound image floated upward and it failed. If you adopt such a three-layer composition, it may be possible to capture the sound field well if a distance between the layers is wide at a large recording venue.
４－２UNAHQ 2009 F. Schubert Death and The Maiden 2015 December
A: Height. Miking aiming at hall audience seats from the end of the stage
When I heard the string quartet "Death and Maiden" written by Schubert in his last years, I was impressed with the dynamics and huge momentum. How can we capture this momentum and ensemble with a height microphone? While listening to the sound at the stage while making a solo piano album [Dimensions], I noticed that the trajectory where the sound fly toward the audience seating. Even if I asked the hall’s staff, "It is a story that we have a feeling that sounds will fly when we are sound checks from the stage with rehearsals etc." So in this work, I decided to use the sound that the ensemble of "death and maiden" flies to the audience for the height. (I think that there is a question that it cannot be called a height microphone!) If you can see the figure, the four microphones placed at the stage end in the linear arrangement, the two extreme ends are placed in TOP - Ls / Rs, and the middle two are placed in TOP - FL / FR. This is miking, which I applied to the Ohga Hall a method to record 4-channel coastal wave when doing field surround recording.
４－３ UNAHQ 2012 P.I. Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence 2016 December
A: Height channel from the second floor balcony seat
How capture the sound of Ohga Hall? It is one of the attractions of album production while thinking about various things. This work is well organized and I thought that sufficient sounds would diffuse into the hall, and I set up the height microphone that placed it in the chorus balcony seat at the 2nd floor. If it is here, it will be a distance difference of about 20 m from the stage and a relationship that can be said to be a height-microphone is completed. The microphone used is a one point X - Y mic called Sanken CUW - 180. The one-point L-CH / RCH microphone capsule is expanded at 120 degrees in the direction of the stage and audience seats, respectively, and the localization is set to TOP: FL-Ls and the other to the TOP: FR-Rs.
Although I played the album on 9.1 CH, I got the comment from the person who listens to the concert frequently at Ohga Hall “This is the sound of Ohga Hall ". It was one work that got a feeling that sufficient sound can be captured even if taking a long distance, as the musicians grows bigger. At the next opportunity, we definitely wanted to record at the center of the second floor seat with a height microphone installed next project.
４－４ UNAHQ 2014 G. Bottesini Grand Duo 2017 December
A: Height microphone at the center of the second floor seat
With Bottesini's Grand Duo with Cb and Vl's solo part taken in.
Finally we were able to do a combination at the center of the second floor of the Ohga Hall. Cb and Vl solo 2 people and 5 people supporting it, Cb is also added to the back, so I thought that the sound in the hall can be captured well S / N, the sound of the hall audience side that enable to hall ambience more.
This is also used miking as a pair of Sanken CUW - 180 one - point X - Y As well as the previous recording of the orientation. The direction is directed towards the stage side and the audience side at 120 degrees. It is interesting to see how the difference that compared to the 2nd floor balcony seat comes out to the sound. The sound of mixing is well enveloped Ohga Hall.
Summary:
It was an introduction and demonstration of the various musical compositions of classical recordings at Ohga Hall by the idea of a suitable height miking that UNAMAS approach. Here, even though it is the same recording venue. On the other hand, it is a normal miking that capture the best sound of the hall regardless of the style of the music and making it a height, and the production of such an approach may be fixed.
Personally, from the middle of 1980, I first made 3-1 surround by analog matrix, and after the 5.1 surround from 1990 to 2014, recently, Immersive Surround, which can constitute such a hemisphere surface field, I've been working on with long carrier and experience. I believe that accumulating experience and achievements obtained at each stage is also a very valuable asset and that it is the role of professionals to share it with many people through these activities.
Author's Bio
Mick Sawaguchi
UNAMAS- Label C.E.O Fellow member AES and ips
Mick (Masaki) Sawaguchi graduated in 1971 in electronics from the Chiba Institute of Technology and joined the Broadcasting Engineering Department of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) as an engineer.
At 80’s, era, He was already a highly respected figure, both within NHK and in the Audio Engineering Society, having been an officer in the Japanese section since 1989. He has been taken a practical surround production workshop on his own [SURROUND –TERAKOYA] since 2002.Now it has 100rdwork shop. (http://surroundterakoya.blogspot.jp/)
He retired NHK2005 as MD of Program production Dep. After that
He established his own Music Label, which is [UNAMAS]. It was an early Boutique music label in JAPAN by HD (Hi Resolution recording and production with surround).
http://unamas-label-jp.net/ and UNAMAS4K at YouTube
Currently, He is president of Mick Sound Lab.
Received "Dawn" (UNAHQ - 2003) Excellence Award at the 20th Japan Professional Music Recording Award 2013 by High Resolution 2 ch.
In 2015, "The Art of Fugue" (UNAHQ - 2007) received the professional music recording prize surround category, "Death and the Maiden" (UNAHQ - 2009) in 2016 and 2017, awarded Best of High Resolution Surround category and Best Studio Award. Currently working on Immersive Surround music production since 2015.
Many published regarding surround sound productions as Japan, China and Korea. He often takes a time to have surround production workshop or seminar in ASIA. They give a nickname of him as [SURROUND SHOGUN].
Mick has contributed to many AES Conferences, presenting several papers on surround sound mixing and microphone techniques since 1991.
In recent work "Sound Design · Bible" Kenrokan Publishing
