@Jonathan Mitchell said:
CK I went to the ballet yesterday (Nutcracker) and decided to take specific note of the effect of the orchestra pit and report back. We're talking about a small 500ish audience Opera House which is quite intimate. The things I noticed were:
1. The orchestra were spread widely (left to right) in the pit under the front of the stage, this led to a more extreme stereo effort than you normally get. In particularly, I notice that the Harp on the extreme left was very quiet indeed even in the near right of the auditorium. You'd need to spread your pan very wide to match this.
2. I was extremely surprised that the Contrabass were weak even though there were plenty of them. This seemed to be true for all low frequencies. I presume the sound was going down through the floor rather than up into the audience. I say surprised, because I would have expected the lower frequencies to penetrate the obstructions more easily.
3. Brass came through very strongly indeed, indeed I could tell that they were holding back because even the sounds were extremely clear when they were playing 'mf' without brassiness.
4. Dynamics weren't as pronounced as I expected. I don't know whether this was an effect of the pit, or (more likely) that the orchestra were not varying the dynamics. I suspect that since the orchestra couldn't see or connect with the audience, they would be less likely to turn in an expressive performance.
5. Strings sounds appeared to be quite thin. There wasn't a big string section, but they were struggling to get it out of the pit. I wondered whether the violas had given up and gone to the bar.
All in all the pit sound was great for ballet - you can't beat live music - but I don't think I'd use those effects for VSL material. However, if you were providing music for a video of dancing/ballet etc, then perhaps it might be worth considering fiddling with your settings.
1) I would doubt that this was a full orchestration of Nutcracker, as the theatre was so small, so depending on the orchestration used the "mix" could be rather strange anyway. Harps are quiet instruments and there should be 2 in Nutcracker; the trouble is that we've all become so used to the "false" mix that is used in films etc.
2) The floor covering has a lot to do with the sound from these instruments. Carpet over concrete pit floor for example.
3) With a shallow pit, the brass are often much further forward than with a full size opera pit, so will tend to obliterate other things, even when playing relatively quietly.
4) Many pit conductors seem to think that all music should be loud, usually because they are told by the Artistic Director that whatever dynamic they are currently performing is not as loud as it should be (presumably compared with the latest chart hit being piped though headphones on the Director's iPod). Orchestras don't try to connect with audiences, they just do their jobs as well as they can. Lack of expression usually has more do with the foul acoustic of the pit, causing players to take no risks in dynamic level.
5) Strings, of all instruments, are most affected by dry pit acoustics, especially if the numbers compared with the brass and wind are not in proportion. For example Nutcracker has 11 woodwind instruments, which should be balanced with about 45 strings. If the orchestration is reduced to 5 woodwind players, then there should be 25 strings or so. Often this is just not the case.
Where did you see the ballet? What was the orchestration? What Company? I'm sorry to appear so interested, but as someone who conducted for the ballet for over 10 years I have a fair amount of knowledge about the subject...!
DG
