How to make record albums

If you want to replicate the classic Mercury sound, you might try sending the line output down a few miles of telephone wire!

Lesse... for a top-notch recording of Pink Floyd, find a copy of The Screaming Abdabs (this is Pink Floyd when they were off-contract) 'Rhapsody in Pink', a 2-LP set. It is recorded in the BBC studios before a Decca Stereo tree, the same kind that Kenneth Wilkinson used that made his recordings so good. This recording has no overdubs, no EQ, just the raw mic feed on LP. Its the best sound (IMO) that Pink Floyd ever got and is an excellent example of How to Record a Rock Band in HiFi.

(Pardon me if I say that Pink Floyd and host of others mentioned could have done a lot better job, but often don't because its hard.)

If you show up at RMAF or THE Show I will play it for you.

Mercury used a set of 3 omni microphones, the 3rd being dead center. This mic was usually mixed into the other two channels for stereo. The Decca stereo Tree was a set of cardioids mounted on a baffle that had a sound absorbing panel between the mics. Sometimes a 3rd mic was mounted on the middle panel. Wilkinson favored this approach and also used it on most of the RCAs recorded in England. Both techniques have their strengths and weaknesses!

For our drums we used something a lot like the Decca tree, but no baffles. The mics were angled about 110 degrees off from each other. This is a classic way of recording in stereo and works as well for drums as it does for a full orchestra.

This is why I say recording the orchestra or a band is not that far apart. I've dealt with orchestra leaders who wanted me to use more mics and signal processing, don't think for a minute that the classical world is purist-only!!

Here is a great book that may help all of us audiophools appreciate what goes into a great-sounding LP (or 45!):

http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Stories-Great-Records-Softcover/dp/0879308176

An interesting and fun read...highly recommended.

OOPS! No linked adverts allowed I suppose!

The title of the book is:

Studio Stories - How The Great New York Records Were Made

"I've dealt with orchestra leaders who wanted me to use more mics and signal processing"

You are so right! Knowledge of live performances, and knowledge of recordings are unrelated. Many musicians do not "hear" the recording, they only reference the memory of the performance, and often they do that from the peculiar prospective of their position in the group. No recording can, or should, sound like the prospective from the stage.