This 30th of July of 2014, in between location sound gigs, I had the chance to arrive home 20 minutes before the starting of the fireworks competition – Celebration of Lights -France Day.
Quickly I grabbed some stands, microphones, cables, recorder, mixer and media to start my recording session. I recorded from my balcony, using a RODE NT2A in figure 8 mode (one side facing the fireworks and the other facing the reflections), and an X/Y pattern between the Sennheiser 8050 facing the fireworks and Neumann MK150 facing the reflections from the buildings. I also used the CMIT5U facing the fireworks, but the spare XLR cable I had was faulty.
In Pro Tools, i left the NT2A centered, and each side of the X/Y 100% panned Left and Right. I also did a little bit of compression, EQ and bass enhancement, but could not get the punchy cracks due to my distance from the source. There was not really a reason for me to do this session except experimentation. Most of the recordings were ruined by car alarms, trucks beeping, crowd cheering and music, but I could save a mix sample to post here.
Hopefully you can enjoy and give me some feedback. Enjoy the clip below: