Choral Recording - my Sebatron's maiden voyage

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:43 am

This was a freebee - so I took some liberties to experiment. I think it worked. Tried my new preamp - experimented with mic positioning - used ORTF - hadn't done that before. Wanted to be able to balance the choir and the orchestra, so the choir mics (NT5) are above and toward the rear of the instruments. Orchestra mics (MK012) are behind the conductor. There is also a pair of omni room mics (ECM-8000) in this mix.

This is WIP - Having listened to it a bit I think I'll narrow it up some, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the sound.

The choir was about 25 voices
The orchestra was about 10 pieces
The choir was backed right up against the wall of the roughly 80-foot-across octagonal room. Most of the reverb is courtesy of Ultrafunk. That is the only effect other than level adjustments and panning. No EQ (except for what the Sebatron provided)

Keep in mind, this is a small venue for a piece like this - a BIG HALL sound ain't gonna happen. I could fake it, but the choir director wants a fairly accurate representation of the work.

http://www.cheap-tracks.com/mp3/uui-12-24-04_sample.mp3

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:36 pm

Thanks for the Christmas treat, Karl!

I really enjoyed it; the mix is quite nice, much better than I expected from your description. As soon as I heard it I thought of a Chamber Choir, then I went back and reread your post that it was 25 members. (The trumpet player did a nice job, too...not everyone survives the Gloria movement intact. Smile

How do you like the Sebatron? I've seen ads for it here at RO, and I just haven't had the time to look into it....is it a mono unit? Do you have several?

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 1:27 pm

I have the 4 channel Sebatron. I was very pleased with the sound. The EQ and PAD options make it a very flexible unit. I could see getting another one.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:09 pm

Very nice recording. As a church choir director and recording enthusiast was impressed. The Gloria is a hard piece to pull off with just 25 members, please give my kudos to the director. Thought the balance was great also. Almost sold my Oktavas but after hearing others use them I will keep what I have. Keep up the great work, Van

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:33 pm

That is soo weird. It sounds nothing like what I would expect from the description you have Zem. How can there be room mics in such a dry souding recording? It sounds to time coherent for this. And I think I see TWO stereo arrays, one ORTF and one XY. It sounds like one close ORTF to me - typical wide stereo.

Did I mention it sounds nice.

Smile

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 4:05 pm

Very enjoyable recording! I like my NT5s, but I've been planning an upgrade. It's good to know that they'll always have their uses. I really like the Oktavas on the strings. May I ask what you used to get the sound onto your computer?

I agree with David that it sounds very time coherent.

Well done!
John Stafford

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:48 pm

This is good work. I have of course heard this piece, numerous times and if memory serves me, I have allways heard it in bigger arrangements. This one is quite good considering the mp3.

Tell us if you can, how the conductor reacted to your work.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:59 pm

John Stafford wrote:

I agree with David that it sounds very time coherent.

Is that a bad thing? It isn't an accident.

John Stafford wrote:

May I ask what you used to get the sound onto your computer?

MOTU 24i

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:31 pm

Karl, I'm getting "page cannot be displayed", I was really looking forward to hearing it. You haven't taken it down already have you?

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:33 pm

Karl, I'm getting "page cannot be displayed", I was really looking forward to hearing it. You haven't taken it down already have you?

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:35 pm

It worked for me just now. You might try right-clicking and "save file as".

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:42 pm

I'm getting nothing when I click on your link above, Must be something with the host DNS on my end or maybe my firewall is hosing it somehow. I'll play around a little and see if I can get it.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 11:22 pm

Yeah the problem was on my end.

Very Nice Karl! I really enjoyed it. I like the fact that there is not quite as much room in it, but I can definitely hear the room. I prefer this type of approach to classical peices as the vocal and insturmental groupings are more easily distinguished instead of being one homogenus blob. I have heard other recordings done this way and have always enjoyed them, keep up the good work. Thumbs Up

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:37 pm

Karl:

Nice work here dude! There's definitely some very good points to this recording. I was also expecting less based on your description. The sound has a very distinct treble starting at about 2400 Hz and up to about 8kHz. Distinct, different - not altogether bad, just different and distinct. I actually kind of liked it.

Your use of digital reverb was judicious and placed well within the frequency - not too much bass emphasis, but smoothly rolled off in the upper register - mimicing perhaps a venue with good solid floors and hard wood on many of the walls. My personal preference is to stay away from all reverbs, but truthfully, you did pretty well with it.

J...

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 5:22 pm

There seems to be a theme here ...

Quote:

much better than I expected from your description.

Quote:

It sounds nothing like what I would expect from the description you have Zem.

Quote:

I was also expecting less based on your description.

I must come across has having no idea of what I'm doing - which might be true. Confused

As far as being time coherent, after I start the "tape" rolling I go up to the front mic and give it a good, loud clap. I use that as a first guess for time shift on the tracks. I made a slight shift of one pair of tracks in this recording to prevent cancelation of the bass.

I expected some obvious phase problems with this recording as the choir mics are overhead of a "U-shaped" orchestra and the orchestra mics are at the opening of the "U" - thus the distance ratios between the two sets of mics and the different instruments are all over the place - but I haven't heard anything ugly yet.

This topic sponsored by: