Out There Recordings: Recording A Choir (Part Two)

In the last issue I described the recording of a large choir in a large venue, with full symphony orchestra in accompaniment. In this issue I will report back on a MAINZ field trip for recording a smaller (30 voice) choir in a comparatively smaller venue: St Paul's Presbyterian Church in Devonport. Unlike the previous choral recording, this is not a concert but a recording session. The choir in question is the highly celebrated 'Jubilation' - an a capella ensemble specialising in spirituals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This choir is probably the most versatile selection of singers in New Zealand today and can only be described as spectacular! At their last concert a crowd double the capacity of the venue turned up to hear them and so half had to be turned away. Those attending the APRA Silver Scroll Awards or the NZ Music Awards this year will have heard them live. For those who missed the invite list, Jubilation can be heard prominently behind Hollie Smith on Don McGlashan's Bathe in the River which won the APRA Silver Scroll Award and is also a finalist for 'Single of the Year'.

 

 Leon Katavich tracks the session on his laptop
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this recording, three sets of microphones were chosen. First, a matched pair of DPA4006s - one the main reasons for this outing was for us to field-test these beautiful microphones. Some readers will know DPA as B&K mics. Danish Pro Audio is a company that took over where B&K left off. B&K continue to make microphones however these are now almost exclusively for testing and reference. DPA, on the other hand, continued the tradition of recording mics. Also used were a Neumann SKM100 stereo kit with a set of Schoeps CMC-6s on standby. For recording we chose a Digidesign Digi 002R driven by Pro Tools 7.1. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, you might decide to cash-in your chips, forgo a career in music production, and buy a brand new mid-priced car with the cash you'd save by not buying this gear. However, for us it's all about the level at which one desires to participate in the music industry. When it comes to capturing the sound of the very best performers in the very best acoustic environments, I always ask myself if there is a weak link somewhere in the recording chain, and is there another way that I could configure the gear to get an even better result?

For this recording the weak link was the mic pre-amps on the Digi 002R. With this in mind, the students decided that a quality external pre-amplifier was in order and after auditioning several we settled on the all-valve, top-of-the-line PreSonus ADL600 'Anthony DeMaria' signature model.
In our last concert we opted for ORTF microphone technique however this system revealed a stereo image that was quite focused. An important side effect accompanying a well-focused image is the loss of 'ensemble'. 'Ensemble' is the ability of a group of singers to sound 'as one' rather than as many individual voices that just happen to be singing at the same time. Ensemble is considered vital in the recording of choir and probably stems from religious traditions where the idea of unity or 'one-ness' is important. Ensemble can be controlled by a conductor, enhanced by the acoustic environment, and exaggerated by signal processing. To create a useful level of ensemble from an audio perspective it all begins with the positioning of the group within the environment, the choice and placement of the mics, and the microphone techniques employed. 

 

  Lisa Stokes spaces the DPA4006s at 45cm