As you tune in or connect with WGUC on Sunday nights for our broadcasts of the Cincinnati Symphony or May Festival or Cincinnati Opera, do you ever wonder how that was accomplished? Would you be surprised to know it is all in the hands of one person? Recording and Mastering Engineer Joel Crawford may have an office at our station, but his real workplace is in the wings and the attic and the stage of Music Hall.
“I’ve been a classical music fan and audio engineer my entire career. I was doing a lot of freelance work, traveling the country, but was looking for an opportunity to settle in one place when this job came up.”
“I work very closely with the production staff of the CSO to prepare to record each concert. I get a hall sheet with the concert’s program, the stage configuration for each piece, and details about any special guest soloist or choral group. Then I start charting each piece to determine featured instruments, when the music is soft and when it’s bombastic so I can build a microphone layout.”
“If I’m not completely familiar with a piece on the program, I’ll also spend the week listening to other recordings of it so I get a sense of the ebb and flow of the music, where to expect any surprises, and help me get the balance of solos to full orchestra correct.”
“Oftentimes I have to head up to Music Hall’s attic so I can lower the microphones in the correct places. It’s over 130 steps to get up there, I have to wear a headlamp to see what’s going on, and it’s a bit of balancing act 65 feet above the stage to rig them to the right spot.”
“Then I sit in on all the rehearsals, listening intently so I can determine if I’ve got the right balance with the mics or if I need to reset. I also need to be ready for a guest soloist who may not arrive until a day before the first concert so I can get them miked up properly.”
“Interestingly, the toughest instrument to record properly is the piano. Each performer plays it so differently and then how it interacts with the piece and the orchestra, it can be a real challenge to get it right.”
“We record every concert, then I work with the associate conductor on assembling those recordings into the one recording we will put on the air. The software I use now is so advanced that I can take out most mistakes and even audience coughs so that what our audience hears is the very best of the CSO (or other groups) which is what WGUC wants to do – to really shine the light on the exceptional local music being created here.”