Recording a Barbershop Quartet

[Armand Piecuch]

What advice would you give to someone someone intent on recording a barbershop quartet? What mics would one use (condenser/dynamic) and how would one position the singers to get the most dynamic sound? I've thought about recording them all together, and them having overdub themselves individually, but I can see how that second process could get messy.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Massive Master]

4 LDD's in a semi-circle so they can do it how they normally do it. If it's an exceptionally decent sounding space, maybe play with a couple omni condensers to capture the space too.

 

[rob aylestone]

Many Barber's shop quartets cannot sing individually - they use the others for pitch and volume - so singing solo usually wrecks the style. Decent quartets are very aware of how they 'gel' and adjust their balance internally - so the best technique is to treat them like a stereo source, and mic them up similar to how you'd do a string quartet with a stereo pair. X/Y would work for me, with the actual angles set to match the spread of the singers.

 

[Ethan Winer]

What advice would you give to someone someone intent on recording a barbershop quartet? What mics would one use (condenser/dynamic) and how would one position the singers to get the most dynamic sound?

More important than any of that is the room you record in. How big a room do you have? If it's small, put the singers in the middle away from walls, and keep the microphones fairly close. In a large room you can put the microphones farther away, which is usually better. This matters more than anything else including which microphones you use.

--Ethan

 

[moresound]

I do barbershop quartets a lot.
And what works for me every time is a pair of SDC (my favorite is the Earthworks SR69s) set to an XY configuration. About chest high and about two feet away.
In fact during competitions this is the only way that is allowed for them to be miced up ... Then they are always standing in their semi circle configuration.

 

[b00n]

Are they used to sing with mics?
Do they use mics live?
Do they have good mic technique?
In this case I would possibly consider renting great live vocal mics and let them perform as they are used to.

 

[rob aylestone]

Are they used to sing with mics?
Do they use mics live?
Do they have good mic technique?

You've missed the point.

A barbershop quartet, or indeed any bunch of musicians that have their own internal balance have no need, or desire to have any mic technique at all. They blend their voices so that once a few feet away, their voices combine into 'a whole'. So stereo mic techniques are needed, so they never get close enough to even touch a mic. The job of the microphones is to capture what is there, not capture individuals, just their contribution to the 'whole'.

Mic technique, as applied to vocalists, using the mic as part of their sound, is simply not a feature.

When people who are used to using mics sing barbershop style, like the Osmonds, for example, have hand held mics - they are professional enough to ensure the mic technique they employ allows the sound op to blend them properly. This technique is really prone to going wrong badly if the singers are not really 100% solid with their performance and mic technique - it shouldn't ever be applied to anyone other than those who really, really understand it!

 

[b00n]

A barbershop quartet, or indeed any bunch of musicians that have their own internal balance have no need, or desire to have any mic technique at all.

Wow.

Anyways.
Many small a capella groups I know use hand held mics live and know how to work them.
If this is the case you can go for hand held mics to minimize the room early reflections and reverberation while you track, if your room is not so great.

Treating the quartet as a single source and micing them accordingly is probably a better idea - iff you have a decent to great room to track in, and your singers have good internal dynamics and feel comfortable performing in said room.