This recording was produced by Christopher Smith on December
6, 2015, at Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph, Vermont. The audience
occupied the main floor as well as the balcony, and the chorus stood in front
of the proscenium, on risers that cover the orchestra pit. The main stage
curtain was left open and no shell was used behind the chorus. The program was Rachmaninoff's Vespers.
Two separate recording systems were utilized: a Tascam DR-40 was placed on the shelf in front of the balcony [the 'balcony' tracks], and a
Fostex MR-8 was used in the uppermost balcony. Two unmodified Realistic PZM microphones
were placed facing frontward, on the top banister of the balcony railing [the
'PZM tracks']. Notices were posted, warning patrons of the active (and very
'hot') mics placed at the top of the stairs. The placement of these mics, just
beneath the curved upper edges of the theater, was critical in capturing the
full sound of the chorus. At the close of the performance, four discreet tracks
(captured at 16 bit, 44.1khz) had been successfully captured.
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| The Randolph Singers in concert, December 6, 2015 (Singers, 2015). |
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| View of the interior of Chandler Music Hall, from the upper corner of the first balcony (GBA, 2015). |
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| (Mic Hawk, 2015). |
In post-production, experimentation in mixing these two
sources together yielded interesting results-- though, in the end, the most
unadulterated mix proved most enjoyable. Using the program Reaper, the 'balcony
tracks' were placed in the center of the stereo field, and the 'PZM tracks'
were each panned to 60% left and right, respectively. This mix provided what
seemed to be the best sense of stereo separation. As no time coding was used,
the two sets of tracks were synched manually. The sound of the chorus within Chandler Music
Hall was tremendous; thus, artificial reverberation was not applied to any track, or the final mix.
Equalization of each set of tracks also proved difficult;
the final product represents the most minimal modification to the frequency
response captured by both recording systems. I tried a variety of notch filters
and bass-cut methods, to remove some rumble from the 'PZM tracks,' but those
results were consistently detrimental to the sound of the bass and baritone
singers (across the broad range of 31-125Hz). The 'PZM tracks' also suffered
from chronic electrical hum, likely related to the system being plugged in to
the venue's 110v AC wiring. For this reason alone, the battery-operated Tascam
DR-05 is a preferable (and far more portable) device. In fact, the Tascam DR-05
is able to capture more than two discreet tracks simultaneously; for this
occasion, I was interested in having redundant systems at work, in case of
battery failure or operator error. The final mix was rendered in Reaper and
edited in Cool Edit Pro. For the best listening experience, each track was
normalized independently.
This recording will be posted to YouTube, and will be played in its entirety on The Superhero Sandbox, my weekly program on WFVR 96.5FM South Royalton, on Christmas Eve 2015 (and will also be available for streaming live and on-demand at wfvr.org).
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| Tascam DR-40. (Stevens, 2015). |
This recording will be posted to YouTube, and will be played in its entirety on The Superhero Sandbox, my weekly program on WFVR 96.5FM South Royalton, on Christmas Eve 2015 (and will also be available for streaming live and on-demand at wfvr.org).
References:
GBA Architecture. (2015). Chandler Center for the Arts. Retrieved from http://gbarchitecture.com/projects/chandler-center-for-the-arts/
Mic Hawk. (2015). Musical Instruments and Gear. Retrieved from http://mic-hawk-vintage-microphones.myshopify.com/collections/musical-instruments-gear-pro-audio-equipment-vintage-pro-audio-equipment/condition-good?page=7
Randolph Singers, The. (2015). Welcome to the Randolph Singers. Retrieved from http://www.randolphsingers.org/
Stevens, L. (14 Oct. 2015). How to record a remote podcast. Retrieved from http://howtomakeapodcast.org/6-how-to-record-a-remote-podcast-part-1/
