Best option(s) for recording a female pop a capella group?

[Drumz519]

I've been approached to do a recording for an on campus girls pop a capella group. They are a 14 person group doing arrangements of mostly mainstream pop tunes. There is some vocal percussion in several tunes and they typically have soloists.

I have two very nice sounding halls to work with but we may want something with less room sound. I've gotta attend some rehearsals and get an idea for their sound.

Here's what I've got in my sad excuse for a "Mic Locker";
(2) AKG C1000s
(4) SM57s
(1) Rode NT1A

We'd most likely be recording each song straight through though there could be the possibility of overdubbing vocal percussion.

What do you suggest?

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by Drumz519

I've gotta attend some rehearsals and get an idea for their sound.

You say you are a "Student in New York". Are you talking NYC, suburbs, or upstate? If you're anywhere near the city (or are actually going to NYU), I'd check the Yellow Pages for theatre and studio gear rental places and consider renting some top shelf gear for the session(s). I'm just talking a pair of golden microphones and a copule of channels of equal quality preamps. Stick those in a stereo configuration in the proper sounding room of your choice, and it's hard to mess up from there. Shouldn't cost you a hell of a lot, and you can just fold the cost into your bill.

G.

[Drumz519]

I'd love to have access, but sadly, I'm in upstate NY and don't really have any rental options up here. I've just gotta do the best I can with what I've got.

[Daisy]

I've been doing something very similar with a 14-member all female a capalla group from the University of Chicago.

We get together and record once a year.

If it's at all possible, then I would recommend just tracking as much of it live as you possibly can. Depending on how complicated the parts are, their level of rehearsal, and how picky they are ... you might consider breaking some of the parts up.

What I (we) generally do is this ...

* Vocal percussionists and soloists on their own individual mics. Separated somewhat from the group (off to the side or out in front -- whatever is reasonable).

You could use one or two of your 57's (with really good, thick wind screens / pop filters) for the VP. The Rode could serve as the lead vocal mic ... with the girls stepping up to it when necessary, depending on the arrangement.

* Pair of SDC's in XY -- or even a mock binaural arrangement ... and have the girls circle around the stereo pair ... if you separate them somewhat with bass/alto on one side (facing the "X" mic) and everyone else on the other, you can get some really nice stereo spread.


Once you complete initial tracking using this setup ... you could go through it all with the girls, and pick the ones that came out really well and designate those as keepers. And anything else you can either re-track using the same method or divide them up in to groups and track each section ... using the initial vocal percussion tracks as a guide track ... and then overdubbing each part / section one at a time, with the lead vocal last.

Word of warning: What usually winds up happening is the soloists will hate their voices and make excuses for how poor their performance was ... a few will probably break in to tears, etc. And they'll want to re-track their vocals ... which will be impossible due to the amount of bleed (of their voice) from the initial tracks. To avoid this problem, you can track the lead vocalist (s) in a separate room during the initial tracking ... which presents you with the ultra fun task of getting headphones mixes for 14 girls! Fun stuff.

Right now, you're probably thinking how great it's going to be working with 14 college age girls. But when all is said in done ... just be sure to keep several bottles of aspirin on hand. College girls like to talk. And they like to talk loud. They also like to talk at the same time, so you could have as much as seven different conversations going on at once. And they basically talk about stuff that isn't all that interesting to anyone who isn't a college girl themselves.

The only really tricky part is getting them all to stop talking at the same time. They have no difficulty starting the simultaneous talking, ironically enough. The key is to make sure they designate ONE person to be the producer / leader. And that person has to have a strong personality (good idea if it's the oldest one in the group). It can turn in to a 14-headed monster really quick if you're not careful.

Did I cover everything okay?

[Drumz519]

Thanks for the response Daisy! That really helped out. I'm planning on attending a rehearsal of theirs within the next week to get a better idea for their sound and all that. Some people have suggested I give the ORTF setup a shot with the SDC's. I think that'll probably the way to go and then rock the 57 and NT1a as you suggested. Thanks for taking the time!

Any other suggestions/methods are welcome as well as suggestions for what kind of work I should consider when it comes to mixing it.

[Daisy]

Originally Posted by Drumz519

Any other suggestions/methods are welcome as well as suggestions for what kind of work I should consider when it comes to mixing it.

Mixing should be the least of your worries right now.

And when that time comes, it should be pretty minimal anyway. Keep a light footprint when it comes to compression or EQ (although you may want to do some wide cuts in the 200-400 region just to clear things up a little).

You can get a little creative and compress the VP ... which would really be the only area I would consider any sort of a noticeable footprint when it comes to processing.

If any of the solos need help by way of pitch, I would do it manually, and only in isolated rough spots where it's absolutely needed. No reverb if you can help it, unless you track in a completely dead space, and even then I'd tread fairly lightly.