DSF-1 Captures Hereford Cathedral For Chorum Records

UK-based live recording specialists and CD label Chorum Records, run by recording engineer and producer Steve Swinden, used the SoundField DSF-1 digital microphone system to record a recent choral concert at Hereford Cathedral in the West of England for release on CD. Featuring current and former pupils of the prestigious Hereford Cathedral School in the chorus and orchestra, including the up-and-coming 15-year-old violin soloist Hannah Bethan-Roper on Ralph Vaughan-Williams' 'The Lark Ascending', the concert, given at the end of March, is the latest to be captured by the DSF-1 for CD release by Chorum, who have been using the DSF-1 for over a year. Prior to the purchase of the DSF-1, former choral singer Steve Swinden used SoundField mic systems for over a decade, and still deploys an SPS422B and a Mark V in addition to the DSF-1. "I never leave home without a SoundField," he explains, "and after I heard the DSF-1 digital system on a visit to SoundField one day, I had to have one. It blew me away - the digital version is just so quiet."

Tthe DSF-1 mounted above the performance and Steve Swinden with his DSF-1

The DSF-1 is SoundField's digital microphone system for music recording, developed at the same time as the broadcast-orientated DSF-2 system which has become the standard means of capturing 5.1 surround sound for many international broadcasters working in high definition with surround audio. Like all SoundField mics, the DSF-1 captures the acoustic environment around its multi-capsule microphone in three dimensions, outputting it in SoundField's proprietary B-Format. The difference between the established analogue SoundField microphones systems and the newer digital DSF-1 and DSF-2 is that the latter carry out all of their processing in the digital domain - the first in SoundField's range of microphones to do so. Users can adjust the pickup pattern, orientation and sensitivity of the mic remotely from the front panel of the 1U processor, and the four-channel B-Format signals can be decoded in post-production into mono, stereo, 5.1 and further surround formats by using the SoundField Surround Zone software.

Steve Swinden records SoundField B-Format from the DSF-1 onto four channels of his SADiE system, his main live DAW of choice. The DSF-1 is now his main overhead mic, and although he often adds spot mics for close-up detail on particular instrumentalists, Steve is happy to admit that he frequently only uses the output of his SoundField mics when he comes to mix recordings for release. "When you're recording a live event that can't be repeated, it makes sense to give yourself some options with the miking; after all, I've got 16 analogue channels on the SADiE, as well as the AES inputs that the DSF-1 uses," he explains. "But very often, when I'm mixing, the signal from the SoundField turns out to be all that I need. And the fact that you only need to rig one microphone to capture the entire environment has saved me on more than one occasion, when there simply hasn't been time to rig more microphones, or when multi-mic arrays just aren't an option. I was once given five minutes to rig Tewkesbury Abbey for a recording, with the additional provisos that the mics I used had to be invisible! But following some very quick work with an Ambient Jumbo pole and my SoundField, I had a decent stereo sound that everyone thought was amazing. I should also mention that the DSF-1 has a brilliant limiter. I'm a purist and I never thought I would say this, but I leave the limiter switched in all the time - it's that good!

"The bigger the space, the more the SoundField comes into its own. It gives a very good sense of the acoustic environment you're working in, so provided that's a nice-sounding space, it gives great results. For the same reason, it can give less good results in mediocre-sounding spaces, but because you can vary the pickup patterns, you can largely get around that. If the hall you're working in sounds bad, or is just too reverberant, you can just close the SoundField right down so that it has, say, the pickup pattern of a couple of crossed hypercardioids, and screen out a lot of the room acoustic. There's always a solution with the SoundField."

The Hereford Cathedral Concert, which also features performances of the overture from Wagner's 'Der Meistersanger' and Haydn's Nelson Mass, is due for release on Chorum later this Summer; more information is available at www.chorumrecords.co.uk.