4 Part Music Blog

The most common question I am asked when talking about 4 Part Music as a recording company is “Where is your studio based?”.

The answer “We don’t have a studio” is usually met with some surprise as the expectation is that a recording company has a studio from which it records.  This of course is often the case. Over the years we have often wondered about investing in a studio – perhaps partly to have an answer to this question!

But, in business it is important to be very clear about your aims and position in the market. 4 Part Music has been set up to work “on location”.  The primary reason of course is that our target market is made up of choirs and organists and such musicians do not lend themselves to being recorded in a studio. For such recordings the Church, Cathedral or School Chapel becomes the studio.   This means therefore that we carry around all the equipment you would normally house in a studio.

The most challenging part of the setup is the venue itself. As churches vary in shapes and sizes we have to adapt our setup accordingly. This is where a multi mic technique is crucial.   We have to ensure we capture the choir, the organ and the acoustic – assuming there is one.  Where this matters most is when we come to master the recording.  Our aim is to always be in a position where we can rebalance the sound in accordance with the musical directors wishes.  This could be a case of, more choir, less organ or taking out some of the acoustic.  Obviously, unless we have recorded all these elements separately as well as together we would be unable to do this.

Even where we are recording an organ on it’s own we still follow a similar principle of recording the instrument as well as the acoustic.  The biggest danger of any on location recording is that microphone placement has to be determined for each different location.  Get it wrong and you can either end up with a recording which sounds like it was done in a cupboard or even worse sounding too distant as if the microphones were left outside in the car park.

The second day of recordings at Prior Park College included Bob Chilcott’s “Nova Nova”, Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and the Kyrie from Schubert’s Mass in C.  With the latter two pieces we were introduced to two of Prior Park’s stunning Soprano soloists and we were all amazed at the quality of these girls voices.

Prior Park College

In addition to the Director of Music, Roland Robertson, directing the choir, we also have 2 other teachers from the school who are acting as producers in the control room with myself and my sound engineer.  This has meant we have had to implement our talk back system which enables the producers to talk directly to Roland in the Chapel from our location approximately 50 metres away.  We are also able to offer play back both through multiple sets of headphones in the control room as well as through speakers into the chapel which means the choir are able to hear back the sections just recorded and therefore take on board the comments from the producer.

Technology aside, the most important aspect of all this is the quality of the actual recorded sound.  Luckily as the college chapel isnt being used at the moment we are able to mark the exact microphone positions as one of the key elements to multi session recordings is that microphone placement needs to be exactly replicated between each session.  This also means that when we go back and set everything up again later for this evenings session it takes less time to put up all the kit.

Having just delivered the rushes to the customer from our first two recording sessions yesterday I now have about half an hour to relax before heading back to the Chapel at Prior Park College in Bath for tonights recording session.

Yesterday’s highlights included “O Thou the Central Orb”, the Sanctus from Mozart’s Mass in C and a fabulous rendition of Buxtehude’s C Major Fugue. Recording in the chapel presented us with quite  challenge not least becuase the organ is located in a gallery at the West End and the choir are recorded from the floor.  It’s at times like this when our multi-mic technique comes into its own as it allows us to place microphones in strategic locations to ensure we can achieve the correct balance between choir and organ without relying on any sort of “fake” effect.

Having had a quick listen back whilst creating the rushes which we delivered to the Director of Music at Prior Park College this morning the microphone placement appears to be spot on to ensure we have sufficient clarity from the choir whilst also ensuring we have enough of the chapel’s 4 second accoustic.

I will report back again once we have finished tonights session which should include some solo’s as well as choir and organ.

Today’s task is to make the final preparations for our forthcoming recording at Prior Park College starting on Sunday running through to Tuesday evening.  Over the last few months we have streamlined our set up as far as is possible and whilst the majority of the recording rig is now housed in a single case it does take 2 people to manouvre it and we now have a plethora of ramps to deal with steps and simply getting it in and out of the van!

Prior Park College at Sunset

That aside the most important preparation work is taken up in deciding on microphone layouts.  The plan with this recording is to set up 24 microphones in the College Chapel which may sound to some like a case of safety in numbers but in actual fact each microphone has a specific purpose. A great deal of on location recording companies simply set up either  a Soundfield microphone or a “stereo pair” on the basis that if you were in the audience listening thats what you would hear.

Part of me agrees with this concept, so we too will set up a Soundfield and a stereo pair. But then we will set up another stereo pair a bit further back, some spot microphones on the choir, microphones on each soloist and a further bank of microphones on the organ. Then the few which are left over will be placed at strategic points around the chapel to capture the accoustic.

Is this over the top? Well yes quite probably, but the thing is, we only get one chance to record.  Whether or not we use all these microphones in the final mix doesnt matter, but the benefit of using such a wide array of microphones in such a variety of positions means we have the greatest possible flexibility when mastering the recording afterwards to create the sound the customer desires.  After all in many cases, it is not always our opinion which matters the most.  If the customer wants the choir to sound nearer then we need to be able to achieve this. If he then says can you reduce the organ balance or bring up the soloists, again we need to be able to do this. Whilst there are any number of technical ways of doing this using “effects” or various VST’s, it’s always best to start with the original recorded sound than to add “fake” reverb or acoustic.

Positioning microphones correctly is quite possibly the most important way (all other factors being equal) in which you can influence the quality of a recording.  However, for something which is so critical to the end result it is an art which is often misunderstood and overlooked.  There are probably as many different opinions on this matter as there are articles written about this subject and I’m not about to add to the confusion by suggesting a magic solution, if indeed there is such a thing.

Despite this I am not for a moment suggesting that microphone placement is guesswork. When we go out to record today we probably use one out of no more than a few tried and tested setups for the microphones, depending on the venue, acoustic and type of ensemble or soloist we are recording.  Because all venues are different the fine tuning can only be done on the day once the musicians are in place which is why we spend 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of the session just listening to the overall sound coming through the microphones to ensure they are placed in exactly the right place.  We may only move them a few inches forward or back but this can make all the difference between a good recording and a stunning recording.