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I had the pleasure of assisting engineer Jerry Bruck from Posthorn Recording during the Mahler Festival in Boulder.  What does a veteran in the classical recording industry do for orchestra?  Use his own system of course.

As a fan of the sphere technique, but lacking in the chance to use one I had a lot of fun listening to the sphere.  What amazed me was the sound from the sphere alone.  The separation was amazingly good for omnis that close together, and the clarity was well, clear for off-axis pickup.  What I liked the most about the overall sound was the localization of each instrument reminded me more of blumlein than spaced omnis.  Being able to locate each section, even instruments including the center brass was an aspect I did not know was so solid.

The Schoeps 360 is actually a surround rig with a pair of figure-8’s flanking the omnis.  I’d love to hear a sphere in a good surround room (trip to Banff!).  In addition to the sphere were a pair for soloists, and another pair for chorus.  The mics were fed into the smallest, most powerfully compact boxes I’d ever seen.  Sound Devices, who I’ve heard associated more with film/TV/location applications, built these dual hard drive/SD card 4-track recorders (named the 744t) I could almost put in my pocket (if that says something about either the size of these devices or the size of my pockets!).  With a few flat mixers and the Schoeps matrix box, I’d say it was the smallest high-quality 8-track I’d ever seen…. and I want one.

And I would also like to point out my experience at the University of Colorado was anything but pleasurable thanks to the unlit signs, and a warm parking ticket.  Thanks for that…. I’ll be sure never to do volunteer work for them.

Big thanks to Jerry for letting me crash his room and bug him about audio… and no Bob, I was not allowed to bounce his Sphere.