The venue was the Old Independent Church on the outskirts of Haverhill and I had previously recorded the band in there in 1999 so I new that the acoustics were very good. Recording on location for me is all about getting a good venue and brass bands particularly need space to develop their sound. As a rule of thumb I try to find a venue with a high ceiling which the band can fit into at least 3 or 4 times and the church fitted the bill perfectly with a nice natural reverb of about 3 seconds
First up as always, I set up the Soundfield mic about 20 foot back from the front of the band, set to record in B Format so that I could alter the pickup pattern in post production. Listening back it became clear that there was a lot of reverb in the room and so I moved the Soundfield progressively nearer a few inches at a time until I had a good balance between the band and the room ambience. So many times I still get people booking a venue because it is acoustically flat and dead with a low ceiling and this idea that you need a dead room to record in stems from the 1960s studio and is totally inappropriate for a large choir, band or orchestra that needs space and a good natural ambience to blend the sound.
I have taken to putting up a pair of spaced Omnis about 6 foot apart infront of a brass band and I used the lovely Hebden Sound 3000 mics on tall stands about 10/12 foot high either side of the Soundfield. The mixture between the Soundfield and the spaced Omnis pretty well gives me the sound I am looking for though I will move the mics by a few inches either way to get the right balance. Invariably I will put up some spot mics for detail and on this session I put a single Rode NT5 over the kit about 4 feet away and I put a Audio Technica 4047 over the tuned percussion at the back of the band which picks up the Tymps on this particular track. Finally I usually experiment with something over the basses to give me some extra "Umpty" if I need it and I used a Blue Mouse pretty close to the bell of one of the E flat basses.
Rimsky Korsakov's Procession of the Nobles is a pretty dramatic piece with huge dynamics and it is always important to keep an eye on levels to avoid any clipping or distortion. I never compress any mics at the recording stage and never apply any EQ as I monitor the session on headphones and I want to have everything flat for the editing and mixing in the studio.
I always set up in the room with the band so I can easily interact with the players and the MD without silly red lights and headphones. Above all you need to be totally transparent as a recording engineer and just drop in as soon as the MD raises their hand. It is no use having to stop to ask for retakes because you aren't on the money. Remember that it really is hard work playing a brass instrument for 5 or 6 hours both physically and mentally. I get the band to run a complete take of the piece and then the MD and I will sit with the score and mark which sections we need to redo, so in this way you can end up with as many as 30 separate bits for a really complex piece. I always ask the players to own up if they know that they made a mistake as it's so simple to replay a small section rather than try and mend it in the edit.
So in many ways getting a great brass recording isn't really about mics and recording gear but managing the session. You have to read music and to be able to follow a brass score which can be notoriously tricky and you have to make sure that you cover all your edits otherwise it's a nightmare at the edit.