Options for the assignment

As you have seen before, I didn't get a single positive reply for my e-mails sent to various orchestras, musicians and venues. Therefore, I am forced to reconsider what I am going to work on for my final assignment.
As I have written before, I will be recording a concert of Fitzwilliam Choir which is singing together with St Edmunds Hall Choir in St Peter's Church in Leicester. Quite possibly, this recording will became my assignment for the Final Project - that is now being discussed with my supervisor. The other option is to use the Kettle's Yard recording and finally finish the production of the album to hand it in as the Final Project.
As for the recording of the 2 Choirs, so far I know that it looks like it is going to be quite challenging:

'...the main choir will be singing near the front of the church, but during two of the pieces there will be groups of four soloists who would probably be singing near the back of the church.

[...] the organ scholar at St Edmunds Hall still doesn't know exact numbers for the concert. I'd guess numbers in the combined choirs would be between 25-30, but will tell you as soon as we get a definite answer!'

Looks like I will have to take big, fat and heavy Fostex HDD recorder with mixing table and a tonne of microphones...

Kette Yard recording - 3rd and 4th sessions

Session 1


Intro


I forgot to check my notes from the last session, so I came to the studio not knowing what is left to be done with the 1st track. To avoid doing things against my previous tactics, I decided to start working on the second track.


All changes to all the plug-ins had to be done using automation, to keep the work I did on other tracks intact. What happened in this session was:



Added EQ for strings track
Because the track starts with double bass solo, I automated pan on strings to have them on the middle with a little stereo spread. All the other tracks were muted for the duration of the solo, and I faded them in once they started playing.


EQ on strings track


Adjusted drums volume
In this piece, drums go rather quietly and don't really reach the threshold of the expander that I set up earlier, so I changed its settings a bit.


Put through valves
I tried to worm the sound of this track up a little, so I added some base (low shelf below 200Hz lifted up quite a bit), and decreased low-middle frequencies (wide dip at around 500Hz). As there was already base and high cut applied in Logic, I didn't use them here.

Valve EQ for the whole mix

Then, I sent it to compressor to rise the levels up (primarily I've done it in Logic, but i wanted to have it done by valves). I used 1:10 ratio, but set the threshold so that it would only compress louder bits. I set the attack quick, but release is rather slow, to smoothen the dynamic changes. Gain makeup was adjusted to give peak at around 0dB back in Logic.


Valve compressor for the whole mix




Session 2



That's it for the valves
I had a good, comparative listen to both valve and 'from the box' versions and I realised that for some reason the valves made the recording less clear. It has lost some of the stereo space, and somehow it felt like put through a blender, all mixed and messed up together. Therefore, I decided to not use valves this time.


Starting track 3
This one is quite special, because only guitar and strings play in it. I realised that all the settings from the previous track work pretty well on this one, except for compression settings. Distinction between strings and guitar is much clearer here, and unfortunately when guitar goes loud, compressors would react intensively, creating unpleasant feeling of strings sound being damped.
I couldn't just turn the guitar track down, as strings track contain almost as much of it as of strings themselves and really, varying the guitar track volume didn't quite change anything. To avoid over-compression, I changed the compressor on strings a bit: increased threshold and reduced gain. On the main mix compressor (that I came back to using after deciding on not using valves) I changed attack and release times to make it work less violently.
Additionally, as other microphones were switched off for this piece, I panned strings hard left and right, leaving the guitar a bit to the right.
This all gave pretty clear, dynamically varied effect.


Arrange view showing regions layout and automation on all the tracks.

Fitzwilliam event - post-production

As the musicians did not require any processing of the material, I only decided to work on two lute and soprano pieces and use them for my portfolio.

First listen

Levels appeared to be OK, but after listening to the material, I discovered a lot of white noise at about -22dB (remember the Data Projector). Luckily, it does not interfere with the music too much, but I will have to gate it out during quiet moments.
The vocalist (Jeni) has a very resonant voice, and when she puts an accent on a note, levels go quite high up. Because she was a bit to the left, one of the microphones was picking up more of her voice, and when she went loud, Marantz (which had a limiter on) limited only one channel for a while. This caused quite funny effect that the vocal is moving around when singing loud - this will have to be eliminated (probably with pan automation)

First corrections

To make the whole record sounding nicer, I put it through my beloved valve EQs and compressors.
Here is what I EQed:

• Low Frequency cut around 90Hz (mainly for noise).
• High Frequency Cut from around 11kHz (noise again).
  
• Low Shelf raised by a quarter of a knob turn from about 150Hz, to deepen the lute sound and make it sound 'closer'.
  
• Cut on band EQ at around 500Hz, Q sharpened just a bit - that's for too resonant vocal frequencies.
• High Shelf cut down a bit from 6kHz up, Q flattened slightly - this was to reinforce High Cut a bit.

EQ settings - pic 1


EQ settings - pic 2

I used compressors just to increase overall level. High threshold only allowed compression on really loud moments, and even there the compression ratio was quite low.

Compressor settings

After setting the valves up, I recorded the output into the new track.

Recording output from valves

To be honest, I don't really think that I will need to apply any more processing. I will have a second listen later and if it sounds fine, I will just do minor adjustments, fades and burn a CD.

Another e-mail sent

Yesterday I found information on another concert of Academy of Ancient Music themed '4 Seasons' (that is the first one coming up on the list here).
...and I still haven't got any reply to my previous 3 e-mails.

After Christmas Break

After long break, time to get back to work.
As Final Studio Practice was cancelled today, I spent some time looking for more concerts to record. I managed to send 3 e-mails: to Cambridge Symphonic Winds, National Youth Jazz Orchestra and Restaurant Alimentum, which hosts weekly Jazz Club.
Also, I got the proposition to record Fitzwilliam College Choir giving a concert together with some other Choir (sorry for imprecise information, but I can't get to my Fitz e-mail from my university network) on the 14th of March. I already agreed and I plan to have this concert as a backup material for the live performance.
Now, I just wait for the replies to come...

Searching for a concert to record

A couple of weeks ago, I started searching for the concert I could record to produce a live album for the Final Project.

I started looking on the website of Corn Exchange, probably the biggest event venue in Cambridge (http://www.cornex.co.uk/ccm/portal/). For some reason, as you can probably guess from the recordings I've done so far, I really like recording classical music. Therefore, I found International Concert Series very interesting and I sent an e-mail to Corn Exchange asking for possibilities to record one of the concerts. To have enough time both for preparing before the concert, and for processing and producing the album afterwards, I have only 2 options: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on 22.01.2009, or Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra on 3.02.2009.

I got very nice reply saying that as long as performers are happy to record the event, the venue will let me do it as well - good start! Today, I sent an e-mail to BSO, and now I am searching for a contact to RSPO. Fingers crossed!

UPDATE:

On this website, I found out who is managing the tour of RSPO in the UK, and e-mailed him as well. Fingers crossed again!

Another Concert in Fitzwilliam

Intro

A week ago, I was asked to record a concert (or rather multimedia performance) happening in Fitzwilliam College Auditorium. The instrumental line-up was:

• Violin + piano
  
• Harpsichord solo
  
• Clarinet + piano
  
• Vocal (soprano) + lute
  
• Viola + piano
  

Equipment used

I wanted to use the Handy H4 recorder that I used with Music Therapy Group for the backup track, but it was unavailable in the studios, so I had to settle with good old Marantz.

Remembering the noise problems I had with C414s, I decided to take some small diaphragm microphones this time. To make setting the stereo pair easier, I just took NT4 with me. Marantz was set up to record in 16 bits, 44.100 kHz.

Set-up

I put the microphone(s) in front of the first row of the audience. This allowed me to access this place easily. During the rehearsal, I took notes on the levels and microphone placement (instruments were in different places around the stage). Later on, I had to play DVDs and change lights during the performance, so I couldn't sit down with my recording equipment, but I had time to get there in in between musical parts to change settings on Marantz and position microphones, according to the notes I took during the rehearsal.

Because of the movies in between music, the data projector which is hanging down right above the stage had to be on. That contributed to the noise in the record.

Pics

(click the image to go to flickr, where you can see larger versions)

Far view of the stage. NT4s are directed towards the musicians.


Closer view of the stage.


...And another one.

What next

I'll post more when I get to some studio to have a good listen. For now, that's it!