Recording iyatraQuartet
For part of their new album, experimental instrumental world music group iyatraQuartet recorded live in the cavernous space of The Union Chapel in London. The significant ambience in the chapel made for a natural reverb that their recording engineer chose to use in the mix, capturing it with stereo ambient and surround mic arrays.
iyatraQuartet’s Recording Engineer, Les Mommsen, used a mixture of close mic’ing techniques with stage and room mics to add an accurate feel of the ambience of the space. We got an exclusive tour behind the scenes at this recording session at the Union Chapel to see how it all went down.
Les prefers recording groups live as he says:
The energy of the whole group is captured more easily and with the added dimension of the space which is like another band member, it effects how the musicians interact and perform, often giving far superior results to the overall product
He used a mixture of DPA Microphones across the board, including 4006A omnis, 4011A cardioids, 4015A wide cardioids and 4099 instrument mics, all recorded simultaneously in live takes with the band. He also employed d:facto™ Vocal mics and the d:mension™ 5100 Surround Mic for stage ambience.
Photography ~ Caleb Hill