ABSTRACT
Although the dominant-array recording method can be extremely quick and effi cient at capturing all sorts of different ensembles, it works best when preserving a natural acoustic event for posterity. What it doesn’t allow is a tremendous amount of control over the balance or timbre of any instrument from the control room, whether during tracking or at mixdown: You can’t process the dominant array without affecting most of the ensemble at once; you can’t fade down an instrument that’s too loud in the dominant array; and you can’t use a spot mic to drastically change any instrument’s tone without upsetting the ensemble balance. Fundamentally, a dominant-array recording is what it is, and trying to fi ght against its inherent nature will usually end in tears.
