Recording the University of Sheffield Brass Band

Recently, a pair of Beyerdynamic MC930 mics were added to the mic locker here at Grimshaw Audio. They were chosen for their exceptional sound quality - there are comparisons to Neumann mics costing twice as much, and opinions are split as to which sounds better.

What better way to fully try them out, than to go and record the 45-strong University of Sheffield Brass Band?

The setup went as follows:

2x Beyerdynamic MC930 as the main stereo pair, placed just in front of the conductor

3x AKG C3000 (original version) as brass spot mics

2x Audio Technica AT3035 as percussion spot mics

1x Cadenza ribbon microphone as the drum kit mic

After a little discussion with the band, we decided that the finished product should have no compression applied. Everyone in the band works really hard to make sure they sound great at the extremes of volume levels, so it's important that those dynamics come through in the recording.

After listening to the recordings, I found everything sounded great, to a point where no EQ or other processing would be required. The only thing that needed doing was to carefully blend the mics together to recreate the live event.

With kind permission from the band, the results are below: