Recordings

Over the years Ian has been involved in sound recordings including everything from formal talks to charitable groups to live musical concerts and has played/sung on commercial releases and on national TV (ITV/C4) and radio (BBC Radio 4 and Radio France) as a musician as well as touring Europe.

He specialises in recording choral/chamber groups using coindicent (XY cardiods) and near-coincident (ORTF) techniques direct to digital solid state or CD. He also uses Soundman OKM II binaural mics for FX and stereo wildtrack: which have been used by the BBC. He undertook a two year music technology course in his youth and plays piano and keyboards.

The sound recording equipment Ian uses is as follows:

Mics:

  • 2 x RODE NT2-A multi-pattern large-diaphragm true condenser mics with shockmounts
  • 2 x AKG C3000B large-diaphragm cardiod condenser mics with shockmounts
  • 2 x Beyerdynamic Opus 53 pencil cardiod condenser mics
  • 2 x Audio Technica AT2020 side address cardiod condenser mics with shockmounts
  • 2 x RODE M3 multipowered location/studio cardiod condenser mics
  • 1 x Audio Technica AT804 (now AT8004) dynamic newsgathering omni mic
  • 1 x Sony ECM MS907 mid/side stereo electret portable mic (90/120 degrees M/S)
  • 1 x Soundman OKM II binaural stereo mics (plug in power)
Location recording:
  • Fostex FR-2LE solid state recorder (XLR/phantom power)
  • Edirol R-09 solid state recorder (handheld)
  • Sony MZ-R30 portable minidisc recorder
  • Studiospares.com boom stands and XLR cables
  • Yamaha MG12/4 mixer - 12 channel 4 bus (for more complex location work)
Studio recording:
  • Edirol M-16DX 16 channel digital mixer
  • Lexicon MPX200 Reverb/FX unit
  • Samson S-Com stereo compressor
  • Numark MP102 Pro CD/MP3 player
  • M-Audio Prokeys 88 digital stage piano (hammer weighted, Yamaha C7 stereo grand sample)
  • Alesis M1 Active 520 studio monitors
  • CoolEdit multitrack and SONAR multitrack editing software
  • TDK LPCW-100 CD/DVD and Casio CW75 labelling machines
Please note Ian currently is not connected to ISDN, as previously used by BBC network and local radio, RTE (Irish equivalent of the BBC) and several ILRs, but he lives 5 miles away from BBC and ILR ISDN facilities.

We are very limited by copyright as to what examples we can provide online but here is a 1 minute excerpt from a live concert by the accomplished A Cappella Singers (of Lancashire), performing Wagner's Bridal March, recorded using a coincident pair of AKG C3000Bs direct to CD, which we have permission to upload:



Here is an excerpt (the beginning) from a local pianist playing Gerswhin's Rhapsody in Blue:



Listen now to the start of a commercial meditation CD Ian did for Rainbow Tai Chi using his own FX:



Here are a couple of binaural stereo recordings Ian did which were added to the BBC Sound FX library - the "Ratty" in Cumbria and bell-ringing in Lancashire:



Ian Birch