Al began with a little philosophy on recording, and the concept of preserving sound "in context" as opposed to studio recording with manipulations. He stays away from sound reinforcement and studio recording - 8 channels is a big deal for him. He mentioned the aesthetics of classical recording: perhaps to "simulate the ideal listening experience in the ideal seat."

Al gave a classical mike technique overview. Small diaphragm condenser microphones are commonly used, where off-axis response is smoother with less comb filtering than large diaphragm microphones. The tradeoff is a bit more self noise. His common brands included Schoeps, Neumann, DPA, Sanken, AKG, and Sennheiser.

He continued with polar patterns used, starting with omnidirectionals in spaced, "AB" pairs. Omnis have better bass. 3 omnis can be configured in thee popular "Decca Tree" array. He noted that one still aims an omni for high frequency response on its axis. Al likes a 4 omni array shown there in the Seattle Symphony's Benaroya Hall (although raised partially up into the ceiling that night).

Al discussed stereo image issues, controversies and arguments. The best technique is probably the one the customer likes, he said. He went on to coincident arrays. The "X-Y" pair of cardioids or hypercardioids have a good sum to mono, but sounds mono-ish even in stereo. They do keep phase shifts to higher freqs.

M-S (Mid-Side, or Mono-Stereo) is the combination of a figure-8 capsule with a (usually) cardioid capsule, and is matrixable, adjustable, and can simulate X-Y.

The near coincident array is represented by "ORTF" array of cardioids or hypercardioids, with a human head spacing and angle. Less bass, but an easy setup and usually a safe all-around method.

Boundary Layer techniques included the dummy heads. A Crown SASS system was used in this hall for an assisted hearing system, but he confessed, it was kind of ugly.

Al then played several CD examples of his and other's work, then a break was held for water backstage , and the prize drawings.

CDs were won by Charles Tomaras and Andrew Steever. A copy of "The Audio Dictionary" book by Glenn White & Gary Louie was won by Dave Tosti-Lane.

Many attendees came and questioned Al during the break, who continued the presentation with some food for thought about editing: is it fair? Are you documenting the performance, or the music? Live or studio? He mentioned the practical problems and difficulties of editing for classical music. He noted that film score recording was usually not edited quite as heavily as CD releases, as it needs to fit the time more closely during recording, and a few errors are tolerated.

He then played more examples, including a highly reverberant cistern, nature sounds, rain, thunder, and animals. He offered a bit of thought on the context of recordings: humans are multi-modal: they hear & see & smell & etc. Microphones just sit there.

A long Q&A period covered many topics, such as piano mic placement, the noise floor on a recording, his bit depth and sample rates, use of reverb, mic pres/mics, the dynamic range and radio dynamics for home & cars, and the placement/aim of rear mics for ambience.