Record in 443HZ, but end up with 440HZ Wav Files?

[BScout]

Originally Posted by gives

when I was working in the studios in LA seasons, orchestra always tuned to 444 pretty much and I know the LA Phil did also. Nobody I knew down there ever used 440 for tuning. The strings always go sharp as they warmed up and some brass, which is maybe one reason. More realistic and we still had to retune after a while. G

No. We tune to 440Hz.
The Phil, for performances, will tune to what they want but studio sessions are at 440. (and, yes, the players adjust and are fine with it.)

[gives]

Originally Posted by BScout

No. We tune to 440Hz.
The Phil, for performances, will tune to what they want but studio sessions are at 440. (and, yes, the players adjust and are fine with it.)

Not when I was there, but I meant 442 actually. HAH.. Who knows what they are doing 30 years later.
A440 is the standard set by the International Standards Organization (ISO), but it has never been used by everybody. Most orchestras in Europe, and many in the USA, tune to 442. The Vienna Philharmonic tunes to 445 as an example
The San Francisco Symphony (reportedly) tunes to 441 or 442 Hz
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (reportedly) tunes to 444 Hz
The New York Philharmonic (reportedly) tunes to 443 Hz
and The Berlin Philharmonic (reportedly) tunes to 445 Hz

It's always been a moving target. In the 1930 it was different also.

G

[smurfyou]

Yes it is a moving target and I’ve always wondered if they standardized A440 because it’s a nice round number . Certainly not the mean average out there.

At the same time it's hard to believe a professional musician can't tune for a particular performance. I know that's beside the point and we do what the client wants. But if there are existing tracks and it will be tuned back down in the end what is the point?

[BScout]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

Yes it is a moving target and I’ve always wondered if they standardized A440 because it’s a nice round number . Certainly not the mean average out there.

At the same time it's hard to believe a professional musician can't tune for a particular performance. I know that's beside the point and we do what the client wants. But if there are existing tracks and it will be tuned back down in the end what is the point?

Professional musician or not, if an orchestra (like Vienna) is used to a tuning through their whole professional playing lives, forcing them to sight-read new material, work at a different pitch, listen to backing tracks at a different pitch, and do it in 2 takes is a recipe for intonation disaster. It only takes one player to be off. Or worse, you are doing splits and the strings nail it and the brass does not.

At the beginning of Synchron, we actually tried it. It was a mess and a lot of time (money) was wasted. Fixing how we did it through varispeed, suddenly we were back to normal recording speed. Most of the Eastern European orchestras have been doing this from the beginning. It’s still a little unnerving when we travel there with composer-conductors with perfect pitch. Remote monitoring we hear it back at A440.

If this was a more leisurely pace with rehearsals, I’m sure it could be worked out for them to play A440 but unfortunately that’s not the business.

[JFreak]

Yea, and if we are talking about a real symphony orchestra it is tuned by oboe, which usually gives A = 440Hz but can vary because they are hand made.

[gives]

Originally Posted by BScout

Professional musician or not, if an orchestra (like Vienna) is used to a tuning through their whole professional playing lives, forcing them to sight-read new material, work at a different pitch, listen to backing tracks at a different pitch, and do it in 2 takes is a recipe for intonation disaster. It only takes one player to be off. Or worse, you are doing splits and the strings nail it and the brass does not.

At the beginning of Synchron, we actually tried it. It was a mess and a lot of time (money) was wasted. Fixing how we did it through varispeed, suddenly we were back to normal recording speed. Most of the Eastern European orchestras have been doing this from the beginning. It’s still a little unnerving when we travel there with composer-conductors with perfect pitch. Remote monitoring we hear it back at A440.

If this was a more leisurely pace with rehearsals, I’m sure it could be worked out for them to play A440 but unfortunately that’s not the business.

It's crazy I know. In brass quintets we were always adjusting even while performing, so you develop an ear for that pretty quickly when you work at a hight level or even another. Some sessions as a trumpet player you never see anyone, but the guy next to you and then you just adjust to the track. Live stuff like a Fox was a different animal. Whatever they want is my attitude. All great points BScout

G

[Mixchump]

I was doing a ton a of sessions for a big specialty music label up here, and a lot of sessions going over to Mosfilm or Radio Moscow, and always at 442. One of their production guys had the big idea to tune my C7 up to 442 so that all of our rhythm section tracks were at 442. Took about a year for it to settle back down! That's a HUGE amount of difference in tension across a whole piano... Eventually, we started using the AudioSuite Vari-Speed plugin to bump everything up, and then back down with the Orch sessions.

I believe Japan is also 445Hz- definitely a moving target!