Studio: On Site in the Oberlin Steel Panyard
Engineer: Michael P. Geraci
Hardware: Digidesign 002 Interface
Software: Pro Tools LE

Recording a 16 person steel band was an interesting challenge. Many of the best recordings of bands from Trinidad are done outside with very simple microphone arrays. I originally planned to emulate this by finding a suitable outside space, but the weather, wind, and noise would not cooperate to that end. I ended up doing the recording in the Oberlin Steel panyard, their practice space, which is a 50' x 30' concrete room with a thin carpet on the floor. I put up some acoustic foam and blankets to help dampen the very loud sound of the room, and put the percussion section in the back in a small fort of blankets and foam to help lower their volume.

I began with a stereo pair of Audio Techina 4041s in an ORTF configuration, about 7' away from the band, raised about 8.5' off the ground, and angled down towards the back of the group. This sounded great for the bass and percussion which are towards the back, but the front line of the group was not present enough. I then added another stereo pair of 4041s in ORTFF, the same distance from the band, but raised only 3.5' and pointed straight forward.

These recordings were mastered by Paul Zinman at SoundByte Productions, Inc.

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