Choir with MK21

Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:48 am

Hello,

here is another choir sample, this time recorded with 2 MK21's @ 90degrees and 34cm spaced. Any comments are valued a lot!

The choir is singing an old, japanese folk song about a Thousand Winds.

https://www.yousendit.com/download/TTdIeEVlUzdsMHpIRGc9PQ

Thank you! Thumbs Up

TonyK

Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:52 am

No reason to ever want to turn that off.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:53 am

Very nice recording. I wouldn't move the microphones one inch! I heard a strange noise at 1:41. It sounded like a bad cable, or a clock sync issue. At least that is when I have heard a similar sort of sound. Or it could be a fast page turn. If it's a page turn what can you do right?

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:29 am

Fire the page turner.

I still can't believe people do that for a job.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:52 am

Excellent sound. Very natural!

My one and only gripe is that the piano is outside the pan of the group. This isn't something that can be easily fixed in post. Especially with only 2 mics used.

Some choir directors do this to minimize the impact of the piano on the voices. This aggrevates me. If the pianist and the chorus are competent, it shouldn't be a problem to put the piano in front of the choir.

However, because of this, the piano sounds pretty distant - particularly on the HF above 3rd space (treble clef) C.

Personally, I would have spot mic'ed the piano with a stereo pair and brought them in VERY lightly - just enough to add that little bit of percussiveness that brings the piano back to the front again. Panning can get tricky though. If you pan this spot mic'ed piano to hard left and right, then you now have to fight with the original placement (hard left) along with your new pannings. Any time-misalignment becomes blatantly obvious in this case. Also, as midrange becomes more predominant, the image will shift to the left.

In general, if I spot a piano and it's off to one side or the other, I deal with it. The spots get panned in such a way as to replicate and reinforce that...(embrace reality instead of cover it up).

If you have a good working relationship with the conductor, you might point this out on the recording and urge him/her to consider placing the piano closer to the musicians.

Oh...one other minor nit-pick...at 3:06 there was a loud LF noise and a few follow after that. You might consider putting a HPF on and getting rid of the foot-falls,etc.

Cheers!!!

Excellent work!

J.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:13 am

Thank you very much for your kind replies and also pointing towards the noises.

1:41 I think could maybe be some audience noise, but I can't be too sure. Thanks for listening so carefully!

The LF rumble has been a huge air-con problem. The diaphragms every now and than got moved by some wind from above and unfortunately throughout the CD a few of those "bumps" are audible.....it's a real shame and very hard to fix with the tools I have available.

Cucco, I hear you loud and clear on the distant piano sound. It really needs just a little spotting, but it could make all the difference. I wanted to move the piano a bit closer to the middle, but from the audience perspective it would have covered the faces of a couple of the 1st sopranos, which became a bit of an issue, hehe!! Never mind, next time I will try a piano spot and keep your suggestions for this technique in mind. Thank you very much, it's very helpful!

All the best.

TonyK

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