Excessive bass drum

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Why do the recording engineers record the bass drum so out of proportion
to the rest of the orchestra? When I set up my subs to get proper
balance with the low strings (I'm talking classical music) then along
comes the bass drum to overpower everything. Not all recordings do this
but many of them do.


---MIKE---

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

---MIKE--- <twinmountain@webtv.net> wrote:
> Why do the recording engineers record the bass drum so out of proportion
> to the rest of the orchestra? When I set up my subs to get proper
> balance with the low strings (I'm talking classical music) then along
> comes the bass drum to overpower everything. Not all recordings do this
> but many of them do.

I share your objection to this practice. Sometimes it may be due to a
desire to make the drum more audible on systems with limited LF extension.
It's also impressive to some who don't have much exposure to actual live
orchestras.

IOW, it sells.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

In article <cot42r02pnm@news1.newsguy.com>, "Ban" <bansuri@web.de>
wrote:

> ---MIKE--- wrote:
> > Why do the recording engineers record the bass drum so out of
> > proportion to the rest of the orchestra? When I set up my subs to
> > get proper balance with the low strings (I'm talking classical music)
> > then along comes the bass drum to overpower everything. Not all
> > recordings do this but many of them do.

> I think most recordings are quite well balanced in the bass, exept those
> "boom your woofer" ones for testing car audio.
> It's probably because you have set up your gear in a wrong way, or the
> placement is wrong or the room is not enough dampened or you have bought a
> cheap boombox, probably all together.

Mike, how about a specific example?

Stephen

PS I haven't noticed this effect on my Quads!

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

Stephen, An example of a bad recording is EMI D 106294 - R. Strauss.
This was recorded in Japan with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The bass
drum suddenly intrudes and spoils the music. A good example is Teldec
0630-13698-2. Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4 and Romeo and Juliet. The
bass drum is there (and fairly loud) but it doesn't intrude like in the
former example. There are many other "bad" recordings. I'm sure they
sound great if you don't have sub woofers.


---MIKE---