recording accapella gospel quartet

by **jkhuri44** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:45 am

gday guys,

gonna be doin a gospel acapella quartet of 4 ladies, in a week or so.

they sing shoulder to shoulder in a straight line...

ill be recording em in a dead room....(probably a bad thing, since this is acoustic vocal music ) :(

But, in terms of micing, what would be the best strategy to get the best width, fatness, considering ill do a stereo recording of this...

at uni we have 2 X Rode NT2, 2 X AKG 414, 1 U87, 2 X KM184s...

what will capture that sound best...??

,i was thinking of sticking the 414's as a spaced pair a metre or two infront of the singers, and play with the width of the mices, till the sound stage is sounding sweet? or should i use the 414's bidirectional pattern and stick the 2 mics in the middle of a pair of singers (or is that too phasy)?

what do yall reckon? considering the mics at hand?

by **Jason Dirckze** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:55 am

For close stereo recording XY normally works quite well, if you were in a larger space and had some distance to play with, ORTF yields some nice results. I'd probably go for the KM184's in XY

by **davemc** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:37 am

Depending on how many good mic preamps you have.
I would setup a few combo's. A/B and see what sounds best.
If time is short and most bands get itchy waiting, record them all and you can A/B in the control room and work out the best fit.
You can setup the KM's XY and the 414's spaced and the U87 in the middle.
The Rodes.. well he he Top end and Rode's not a thing I ever tried to put together..
If you get your phase right you could use a combo of them together or just one set or even the plain u87.

I have doen similar multi miced setups before where I had a Stereo Royer, Some LDC, SDC and a single LDC on acoustic instruments. Sometimes just one mic sounds stellar.

Dead room will not help though. Any other space to get them to preform in. Is the Control room live/dead style. I know its a bitch in the control room. Also a lot acapella/acoustic style work I record with no headphonea nd only sign lang through the window. Can make it easy hearing themselves

by **chris p** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:23 am

I assume track numbers aren't limited.

How about setting up the 414 as a Blumlein pair, the KM's as ORTF and the 87 as a single mic. Use the Rodes as room mics - try pointing them at different parts of wall or glass and see what they pick up. They key would be to get a noticeably different sound from each of them.

Those 7 tracks would give you three foundation options and 2 room options for each main take, and allow you to introduce some variety in the material at mix time, eliminating the "sameness" of the end recording.

by **Jason Dirckze** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:41 pm

I'd still stick with just one stereo technique. You could spend time setting up 100 mics and you'll still get better results with a stereo pair if you spend the time getting it in the right position.

Pay attention to the voices in the quartet too... you may not want them all in a row, you might want to push louder singers back a bit.

by **jkhuri44** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:42 pm

gday guys, thanks for the input!

the recording is sorta like backing vocals style. maybe i should have clarified that, ontop of a fairly orchestral/lush arrangement.

so, im not sure what will help that sit in the best...

chris, track number's arent limited, but quality pre's are, so for that reason was thinkin of trying to get the best sound with a bitchin' stereo technique..

if i were to go the spaced 414's...how far apart should they be? considering the singers will be shoulder to shoulder (4 of em)? and also what is an ideal distance to place the mics away from the singers??

and i assume i should keep the mics at head level?? or is there another magic trick??

i've never done this before, i know i can get a decent sound...but any tips from the seasoned pro's with experience will save me heaps of time and error...my studio hours are limited, hehehe !!

cheers, JK.

by **Chris H** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:12 pm

Just a thought.....Since it is BV style with other elements of the mix taking a solid middle of the immage i usualy use a wide stereo immage that leaves a bit of a "hole" in the center. The wide spaced pair is one way but the phasing while not out of phase, can be a bit messy. I would give ORTF a go or a crossed pair

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ORTF-Stereo.svg

by **Jason Dirckze** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:29 pm

ORTF indeed works well for getting a large spread, but I imagine this will be a small room and not so great for ORTF. I still reckon XY, or perhaps spaced omni's. Do the 414's have omni polar pattern? I can't recall at this point in time...

by **jkhuri44** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:42 pm

gday jason,

yeah, 414's have omni...and also the room im recording in is large, so quite possible to do al the above :)

Chris H's ORTF diagram says i should be using Cardiod pickup pattern though???

by **Jason Dirckze** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:24 pm

Large room? Now we're talking...

I recorded a mature ladies chorus using ORTF, sounded great, but they were a very large chorus.

Seeing as you have some space to play with, I might go with a similar idea to Chris P, with a couple different setups. Spaced omni's and XY perhaps. It's hard to tell what will be right without hearing the room and the quartet in it. Just have fun with it...

by **mfdu** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:05 pm

most recent similar scenarios for me were :

mornington church pipe organ - M/S (tube condensor in omni, ribbon as fig.8 component - set up about 2M high) straight to 2track tape

five female vocal group (english folk songs) in my dining room (large room, high ceilings, hard surfaces) - M/S (tube condensor omni, ribbon as fig 8 + small diaphragm condensor halfway down the hall) to protools @ 24/96 - M/S sat just above head height, 2M to 3M away from the group. the ladies arranged themselves in a U shape to balance the sound to the M/S according to the needs of each peice. EG. one song had soprano 'soloist' facing the back wall to mellow her out and bring her back 'into' the group, as her voice could cut glass in the high register.

both projects came up great, with minimal mixing and no phase issues.

(oh, and jazz 3-piece instrumental group, direct to 2track tape. ribbon o/h and sm57 snare on kit, md421 on sax, ribbon on upright bass, mixed live through console to tape)

remember - the more mics, the more potential phase issues.

chris
mfdu

by **jkhuri44** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:10 pm

yeah chris,

im planning on minimal micing, and just nail the sound with a stereo pair....MS is looking like the best option maybe...since the choir is gonna be in the midst of a large arrangement, i can play with the width depending on the density of the mix at any time...

so might set up one ORTF and one MS, and playplayplay..

your english vocal group in ur living room sounds interesting!! wouldnt mind hearing that :P

by **mfdu** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:23 pm

nah - the vocal group ("blackbird quartets") was in the dining room. the living room is my control room (see the photo's on my website)

dining room is nice - 12 foot ceilings, and was actually originally kitchen / dining / hallway so it's a good size. floorboards carried the reverb down the hallway to the SDC very nicely too.
but not the same as the room sound from the church in mornington (my uncle plays and maintains the pipe-organ - he wanted to record music for his own funeral!!! no, he's not ill. just being prepared . . .)

there are sooo many clips i want to post, but i just haven't had time. but there's so much i want to share.
to be honest, the hardest thing is the concept of stripping the audio down to MP3. . .

i need to practice ORTF. i've heard much about it, but i had to feel comfortable with M/S first before i could explore a 'new' technique.

my main thing lately has been learning how to track in the same room as a full band. and getting drums down on three mics, with amps in the same room!!!!

rock.

chris
mfdu

recording accapella gospel quartet

recording accapella gospel quartet

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