Gospel choir

Shailat

Shailat

New member
My client didn't have the money for a gospel choir so i hired 2 woman singers and with her together, I tried to make it sound like a 20 singers. It was a interesting try and I think quite sucsessful.
I also recorded claping myself and 3-4 more people I gathered around and we clap several times untill my hands were red as a beet. Man it hurt !
Same woman singer from last post.

Let me know what you think, http://diskwise.com/home.html?view=folder&fid=5629

Email: mwohl@inter.net.il
Password: music
File called Amen.mp3 (around 4.5M) -I only put up half the song.

[This message has been edited by Shailat (edited 05-09-2000).]
 
Sounded like a choir to me...very nice and yet another great clean mix....talented singing and production.....gibs
 
It sounded like a small group of back-up singers, not really that full choir sound, but I thought the production and talent was first rate. Nice clean mix.
Along the same lines as the singer ---> choir digital transformation, why not try a
mix of say, a dozen different recorded claps from those 3 or 4 people put together like Acid Loops to get the effect you want?
Just do the math and you'll see you can get a great deal of variety with all the possible combinations of simultaneous claps.
Save your hands for more important tasks!
 
Your right about the claping but I just felt that if I already have the people around, I might as well go for it.
 
Shailat,

Great job! A nice clean mix. Great singing performances. It doesn't hurt to have great talent. The choir sound was reasonably convincing. How many takes did you have the singers overdub and add to thicken things up? Because for a bigger sound, you had some room to add a few more takes to thicken it up. But either way, it still sounded great. BTW, What 'verb processor and mic(s) did you use?

Rev E
 
Rev - I used a Neumann U87.

I tracked the 3 singers around the mic and did this 3 times while every time I switched the singing parts between them to get each time a different color.

I used a Lexicon PCM 90 verb and used a combination of 2 different ones.
I panned Left center and right.

I thought at the time of recording that I had enough takes (I was also paying by the session for the singers and at the third overdub it started to be overtime and so I stoped it then)(The singers also keep on asking me about the dirty dishes in my sink so I sent them home).
I also thought that I could always change the pitch slighty
and play with digital copying of the the tracks, but when I mixed it didnt seem to need it.


Tapehead - Hebrew
 
Shailat,

Thanks for the response. I didn't know Hebrew could be that funky. The Bass guitar part is great. The musicianship in general was of great quality.

I'm going to ask you some more details about this recording, because I'm renting much of the same equipment for a gospel choir session latter this month (U87, PCM90 for mixdown later). I'm going to be doing much of what you did, except with about 9 singers (3 per part)

I take it you recorded this in your house (from the wash your dishes comment). House or studio? What size room? Wall treatment? Carpet flooring?

How close to the mic (generally) was the soloist? The background parts?

What mic pre did you use?

Date of Birth? Social Security number? :D

Rev E
 
Rwv,

I had used my living room set upfor the day.

It has a wooden floor and I used a gigantic bookshelf behind the singers for diffussion.
At specific angles I placed absorbers that I built on a movable platform so I can move them from place to place (I'm renting and can't do to much on the walls).

The room is kind of big but the sound isn't very wet.

The soloist was singing with a wind screen close to the mic
but not with her mouth on it. I had to ask her to move back a little becuase she was stuffing the sound a little.

Yhe singers were tracked later forming a half a circle around the mic but... here I had to move each singer a little back and foward to get a good blend. This is an important part of the process.

I had them use headphones, You might run into a problem there finding 9 sets. You could use a phase cancilation and use monitors.

I'm not sure which preamp I had used for this session becuase I rent them at a $45 per day and had used different ones on several sessions. If I'm not mistaken it was a Neve for the Bck vocals.

If you want totall control over your group then go for small sections but it could be that for a inspiring performance you should go for the group singing first and then break them into groups.
Good Luck
 
Thanks Shailat,

I have an Isreali friend at work that I'm going to share your song with.

As far as headphones, I have a 10-input headphone amp. I also have 10 phones (some cheapies and a few good ones). Thanks for the setup suggestions. I was thinking of having everyone sing together (in omni pattern) the first pass. Then breaking it up by parts to record. Thanks for the great advice.

Rev E
 
Hey Shailat,

I thought the recording quality was excellent. I thought the effect was almost there as far as a full choir section sound. Either way it was a very impressive sound. And yeah, like everyone else said, great performances.

Awesome work.
 
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