Decca Tree, Ex. F, Full Section of Violins

TOR / ODESSA Montreal / Subject 1 / Anatomy of a Mix / Decca Tree / Example F

The Decca tree captures not only the entire violin section, it now gives the listener an impression of the space of the room as well. In this excerpt, the first stand has been given explicit instructions to lead the section. Generally, the concertmaster is considered the leader of all the string players in the orchestra, but this instruction has caused a conscious boost of energy and attention towards the her position. This leads to a slight increase in the "jetting" sensation of the section pulling towards the right, and also to moments where the concertmaster suddenly becomes aurally distinct from the rest of the section. Generally a staple of orchestral recording, there are multiple ways to create a Decca Tree, but they all involve three omnidirectional microphones ("A" on the left, "B" on the right and "C" for center) placed in a triangle formation. Stereo mixes reproduced from this system tend to have a quite heavy center perspective (due to the "C" microphone) which doesn't allow for the image of the musicians to be too decorrelated.