Recording studios

Studios

Sofia National Philharmonic – Recording Studio

The studio is digital and computer based with the addition of multi channel audio recorders. It is capable of 24bit 192kHz processing and has an option for Surround Recording based on the SoundField Microphone Technology.
The control room is based at the back of the Bulgaria Hall – the most beautiful sounding hall in Bulgaria, which is the cabin of the studio. The hall itself is well balanced and with superb natural reverberation as it is build for live orchestra performances, which makes it extremely suitable for recording symphonic and film score music, as well as for other musical tasks. There is an additional small cabin for solo performers and for dubbing.
The computer is with main software Nuendo v3 by Steinberg capable of importing/exporting ProTools and SADie compatible OMF1, 2; AAF; OpenTL and AES31 sessions. The hard disk space is for more than 100 hours of recording.
The video material can be played either from the timeline of the software or from optional video recorder/player hardware synchronized with the main software. It’s possible to mount a video monitor to show the film and the SMPTE for the conductor and to play an audio metronome from the software for the conductor or/and the performers so that the recording to be “in sync” with the scenes or other creative events in the movie.
The customers can bring their own material and receive the final products on any of the following media: USB or FireWire Hard Disk, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DAT Cassette, Compact Cassette and Hi8 Cassette.

Sofia National Philharmonic – Recording Studio

Concert-Hall “Bulgaria”
Hall: floor area: 680 m2,
Volume: 6 800 m3,
Reverberation time: 1.6 s
Control Room: floor area: 28 m2,
Volume: 80 m3

Bulgarian National Radio – Recording Studio

Sound Production Complex No. 1
Studio:
– Floor area: 420 m2,
– Volume: 4500 m3,
– Reverberation time: 1.35 s
– Control Room:
– Floor area: 31 m2,
– Volume: 90 m3

Keyboards:
– Pianos STEINWAY;
– FENDER-RODES 73;
– HAMMOND ORGAN;
– YAMAHA ELECTRON-E3.

Musical Instruments:
– Vibraphone PREMIER;
– Marimba;
– Xylophone;
– Tubular bells MUSSER, Timpani + grand;
– Drum battery and gongs LUDWIG, Glockenspiel, Celesta,
– Harpsichord;
– Harps.

Post Production Room For Multichannel Music Recordings
– Floor area: 30 m2,
– Volume: 90 m3

Sofia National Musical Accademy – Recording Studio

Halls

Sofia National Philharmonic Recording Studio

Sofia National Philharmonic – Big Hall

Bulgaria Concert Hall
The Bulgaria Concert Hall was built by initiative of the Bulgaria Administrative Cooperative Saving Insurance Company as a part of a complex of buildings that was to include a hotel, too.

In 1931 a contest was announced for the design of the complex, adjacent to the King’s Palace.
The contest was won by architects Stancho Belkovski and Ivan Danchov, who provided the final design project and assumed the implementation. The construction began in the spring of 1935 and the first sections to be built were the building on Benkovski Street and the Bulgaria Hall.

The complex was completed in 1937 and its opening was on October 9 of the same year with a concert of the Academic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by T. Tsankov with soloists the French organ player Joseph Bonnet and the pianists Dimitar Nenov and Lyuba Encheva who performed the Concerto for Two Pianos by Johan Sebastian Bach and the Third Piano Concert by Pancho Vladigerov.

Sofia National Philharmonic – Chamber Hall

The hall was equipped with acoustic panelling with the assistance of the Herzog Institute for Acoustic Studies within the State Higher Technical School in Berlin.
In its initial design the Bulgaria Concert Hall consisted of the Big Hall with 1,470 audience seats (including two balconies and boxes) and a stage that could accommodate a 100-member orchestra and a 200-member choir. The Chamber Hall had 200 seats. An organ, made by Zauer, the manufacturer from Frankfurt an der Oder, was mounted on the stage. It had 4 manuals, 72 registers and 6,000 pipes.

During the bombing on May 24, 1944 the hall was destroyed, together with the organ and the two grand pianos. The Big Hall was reconstructed in 1949 and hosted the performances of the Royal Military Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sasha Popov. In 1974 the Chamber Hall was also reopened.

The Big Hall and the Chamber Hall host major music events in Sofia: concerts, competitions, audio recordings, music reviews, festivals, lectures of the Philharmonic Society.