Re: Choir recording
Hazel
So, suggestion is Monday and Thursday night for the next two weeks - how does that suit?
Also, I bumped into Tony Blackhouse - awesome choir director! and he's doing a singing workshop in Riverside 28/29 and would be interested in dropping by just to hang out and sing! How awesome is that! If you don't know who he is, then google ;) can I please have ideas of numbers for who can attend on the 30th before I confirm the invite. I won't bother if there's only going to be three of us!
Cheers,
H.
Sent on the go from my iPhone
On 30/03/2012, at 7:07 PM, Hazel <h...@blueskysolutions.co.nz> wrote:
> Right folks, we need to get a wiggle on if this is going to happen! How about you tell me all the evenings and weekends you can't do next week and the week after and in that time we can schedule a couple of practices and a recording session.
>
> I'm away over Easter, otherwise all good
>
> Let's do this thing!
>
> Cheers h
>
> Sent on the go from my iPhone
>
> On 19/03/2012, at 10:13 AM, "Flossie Balloons" <in...@flossieballoons.co.nz> wrote:
>
>> Yep I have quite good availability for weeknights
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Felicity Yates
>> Flossie the Balloon Lady
>>
>>
>> Inspiring smiles utilising the infinite possibilities of balloons
>>
>> www.flossieballoons.co.nz
>> Ph 035477029
>> Mob 0274089869
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Yvonne Gwyn [mailto:yvonn...@ncc.govt.nz]
>> Sent: Monday, 19 March 2012 8:59 a.m.
>> To: 'Flossie Balloons'; 'Hazel'; 'Tim Coughlin'; 'Alli Campbell'
>> Subject: FW: Choir recording
>>
>> Hmmm.... perhaps we look at some week nights after Easter. My German
>> classes will be finished by then, so I will have most of my nights free.
>>
>> Yvonne
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Flossie Balloons [mailto:in...@flossieballoons.co.nz]
>> Sent: Monday, 19 March 2012 8:57 a.m.
>> To: Yvonne Gwyn
>> Subject: RE: Choir recording
>>
>> Oooh sorry I'll be away in Blenheim on 14th and 15th
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Felicity Yates
>> Flossie the Balloon Lady
>>
>>
>> Inspiring smiles utilising the infinite possibilities of balloons
>>
>> www.flossieballoons.co.nz
>> Ph 035477029
>> Mob 0274089869
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Yvonne Gwyn [mailto:yvonn...@ncc.govt.nz]
>> Sent: Monday, 19 March 2012 8:53 a.m.
>> To: 'Flossie Balloons'; 'Hazel'; 'Tim Coughlin'; 'Alli Campbell'
>> Subject: RE: Choir recording
>>
>> Yeah, I'm happy to pay something towards it.
>>
>> Only catch is I'm not available this weekend, or most likely the weekend of
>> the 1st. Richmond Summer Faire, then Marchfest, then my Mum is coming to
>> stay. Then the next weekend may be okay, or maybe not depending on how my
>> op goes. Any anyway, I think we'd want to do a few practices before we
>> tried to record anything.
>> Maybe we could book in for the weekend on the 14/15 April (after Easter) and
>> have at least 2 sessions practice beforehand?
>>
>> Yvonne
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Flossie Balloons [mailto:in...@flossieballoons.co.nz]
>> Sent: Monday, 19 March 2012 8:41 a.m.
>> To: 'Hazel'; nelson-medi...@googlegroups.com; 'Tim Coughlin';
>> 'Yvonne'; 'Alli Campbell'
>> Subject: RE: Choir recording
>>
>> Hi Hazel
>> Sounds good....I'd put $20 into it....call it a membership fee....we've had
>> plenty of value in terms of enjoyment over the last couple of years :-)
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Felicity Yates
>> Flossie the Balloon Lady
>>
>>
>> Inspiring smiles utilising the infinite possibilities of balloons
>>
>> www.flossieballoons.co.nz
>> Ph 035477029
>> Mob 0274089869
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Hazel [mailto:h...@blueskysolutions.co.nz]
>> Sent: Sunday, 18 March 2012 10:10 p.m.
>> To: nelson-medi...@googlegroups.com; Tim Coughlin; Yvonne; Flossie
>> Balloons; Alli Campbell
>> Subject: Choir recording
>>
>> Hi folks,
>> Further to our discussions regarding getting the fruits of
>> all our practices and performances to date recorded before Yvonne and Boyd
>> fly off <sniff!>, I have some details regarding recording the choir....
>>
>> I've spoken to someone I mentioned the other day, David Bowater, and he can
>> record us at his place (at Tahuna) or he has a mobile unit if we can find a
>> venue with good acoustics.
>> He charges $40 an hour for his time. The time we need to record will depend
>> on how well rehearsed we are. The most efficient way to do things would be
>> to record the complete songs as a group. I mentioned that we would want to
>> record the seperate parts afterwards but he says that may not be necessary.
>> He would be making a stereo recording, and with the correct mixing, he can
>> make us appear further apart so that the individual parts would be easy to
>> pick out. He would also do a 'choir mix' that would make us sound 'normal'.
>>
>> So, what do people think? We need to know who can make the dates and what
>> is our budget. I expect we can record within about an hour or two, as the
>> songs aren't all that long, and there may be some post-processing to fund
>> afterwards. I quite like the trick with the mixing. It could save us a lot
>> of recording time if we can use that instead of doing all the individual
>> parts later ;)
>>
>> He's available this coming weekend (which may be a bit too soon), or the
>> next available time is 1st April.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> H.
>>
>>
>>
>> You are prohibited from distributing this E-mail without permission. If you
>> have received this E-mail by mistake or are not the intended recipient,
>> please notify the sender and erase the message immediately. This E-mail
>> message and any accompanying data is confidential and may be legally
>> privileged. The Nelson City Council does not warrant or guarantee that this
>> communication is free of errors, virus or interference. This e-mail has been
>> scanned and cleared by MailMarshal.
>>
>> You are prohibited from distributing this E-mail without permission. If you
>> have received this E-mail by mistake or are not the intended recipient,
>> please notify the sender and erase the message immediately. This E-mail
>> message and any accompanying data is confidential and may be legally
>> privileged. The Nelson City Council does not warrant or guarantee that this
>> communication is free of errors, virus or interference. This e-mail has been
>> scanned and cleared by MailMarshal.
>>
Yvonne
Yvonne
Recording a choir:
Anticipate how much time you’ll need then multiply that figure by three, and you’ll be close.Have a rehearsal or a preliminary session in the studio or venue where you’re recording to see if there are any problems. Record your rehearsals leading up to the recording, and let the choir listen to them. They’re bound to hear stuff in there that they didn’t realise was going on.
Do you record the whole choir with soloists(if you have them) all at once or part by part?
When I worked with the Café of the Gate of Salvation, we generally recorded everything 'live' in the studio, and soloists overdubbed
their parts later on. But we have some great live recordings, and some songs that were recorded with soloist and choir simultaneously in the studio.
Tracking everything at once will tend to have a better energy, the song will flow better. You could do it direct to two track stereo (a mic on each side angled toward the centre, or a pair of mics in the XY configuration in the centre), but the norm is to multi-track these days. My engineers have used one or two mics per section, and a couple of ambient/room mics for space and colour. That way, there's more flexibility to rebalance or EQ the parts if you need to later - or even redo things. (However, if you have to re-do something and it only involves one section (say the tenors), keep all the other mics open while recording their part—because there will have been some spill into the other mics, and this will create one soundspace, so re-recording on only the tenor’s mics will have a different tone and space. A messy thing to try and fix later.)
Isolate any soloists in a separate booth, so they have the opportunity to redo their part if necessary once you’re happy with the choir’s recording.
Tracking part by part you have more control, but the performance can tend to be pretty soulless unless you have really experienced singers. I've done it that way with good results (Steal Away on the Café of the Gate of Salvation’s first CD, and God made the rhythm machine on the same choir’s Deluxe CD), but it's time-consuming. Depending on the size of the group, it can be a hassle organising enough headphones. And do you work with a click-track? That’s another factor that could constrain the phrasing and flow of the song, if you’re not used to it.