More choirs and serious church music

rob aylestone

Moderator
Old topic from 3 weeks ago/

Another job came in this week - rush one for tomorrow. Big choir singing Beethoven plus another choir performing some Fauré. Event planned ages ago, and suddenly they want video and audio recording. They want DVD and CDs - no downloads or youtube type distribution. As it's not too far away, I've been for a site visit today, despite them giving me all the info 'I needed'. Big English church, nice but old organ, choir stalls, then going in tomorrow are risers for the choir, and the Beethoven has piano accompaniment, the Fauré gets the organ. Quite a few absolute rules. NO centre microphone possible because of *a misunderstanding of) Health and Safety rules, plus wheelchair access. Then I spot a distinct lack of power outlets. I find some near the organ but 'they are for the lighting man', then I find a nice one on the right side just where I could put the equipment but no, 'they are for the lighting man'. I find two at the rear, which means a 30m run, but I can have one of them because 'they are for the lighting man', but he only needs one of them. I fell over a pile of ancient thyristor dimmers which I'm going to be sharing power outlets with - and they're also a make known here for being rather nasty in the filtering stakes. They will permit a GoPro on the steps in front of the Altar - which would be a nice reverse angle for the choir, but the big window central faces West, and the concert is 30 mins before sunset.

The Rood screen is made of metal, so I might be able to mount a couple of omnis on the centre arch which will be nice for the organ, but centre position above the conductor is absolutely out. So my low down stereo mic might be used again, just in front of the conductors podium. Nightlines are critical as the event is being photographed too, so from the very odd lighting plan they gave me - done by a keen amateur I suspect, will mean I will have to mount the cameras in this area.

I do have plenty of lights they could borrow - but clearly the lighting fella is collecting power from all over the place as there is so little.

Distance is a killer on some of the mics though. I've just made up some 25m long XLR cables.

I think I've sorted most of the problems I might get, but one camera will be nearly 40m from the action - so that's going to be interesting syncing up with a huge delay in the audio track. Not needed for the sound but handy for the video sync.

Looks like I'll actually have two separate systems, one for organ section and a different one for the remainder of the production. I wonder how well they will blend together?
 
Old topic from 3 weeks ago/

Another job came in this week - rush one for tomorrow. Big choir singing Beethoven plus another choir performing some Fauré. Event planned ages ago, and suddenly they want video and audio recording. They want DVD and CDs - no downloads or youtube type distribution. As it's not too far away, I've been for a site visit today, despite them giving me all the info 'I needed'. Big English church, nice but old organ, choir stalls, then going in tomorrow are risers for the choir, and the Beethoven has piano accompaniment, the Fauré gets the organ. Quite a few absolute rules. NO centre microphone possible because of *a misunderstanding of) Health and Safety rules, plus wheelchair access. Then I spot a distinct lack of power outlets. I find some near the organ but 'they are for the lighting man', then I find a nice one on the right side just where I could put the equipment but no, 'they are for the lighting man'. I find two at the rear, which means a 30m run, but I can have one of them because 'they are for the lighting man', but he only needs one of them. I fell over a pile of ancient thyristor dimmers which I'm going to be sharing power outlets with - and they're also a make known here for being rather nasty in the filtering stakes. They will permit a GoPro on the steps in front of the Altar - which would be a nice reverse angle for the choir, but the big window central faces West, and the concert is 30 mins before sunset.

The Rood screen is made of metal, so I might be able to mount a couple of omnis on the centre arch which will be nice for the organ, but centre position above the conductor is absolutely out. So my low down stereo mic might be used again, just in front of the conductors podium. Nightlines are critical as the event is being photographed too, so from the very odd lighting plan they gave me - done by a keen amateur I suspect, will mean I will have to mount the cameras in this area.

I do have plenty of lights they could borrow - but clearly the lighting fella is collecting power from all over the place as there is so little.

Distance is a killer on some of the mics though. I've just made up some 25m long XLR cables.

I think I've sorted most of the problems I might get, but one camera will be nearly 40m from the action - so that's going to be interesting syncing up with a huge delay in the audio track. Not needed for the sound but handy for the video sync.

Looks like I'll actually have two separate systems, one for organ section and a different one for the remainder of the production. I wonder how well they will blend together?

Cant you use wireless mikes up close and a receiver with the recording gear wherever you can find power ?
 
Nope - totally unsuitable for this kind of thing, and there are very few that have omni or other than cardioid/hyper-cardioid polar patterns. They also are not reliable enough, and just too risky to consider. The recording gear has to go in a certain place, and cables are still the best way to wire things. I have plenty of mains cable, so it's just a case of running out the drums - just annoying such a huge building has so few outlets, but the crazy system UK churches (well, Church of England) have for changes makes rewiring them a real problem. Cables, including PA cables are subject to loads of rules, and getting permission to do basic things takes forever.
 
If the churches you are working with are anything like the ones I visited in Chester years ago, I can understand the issue with power outlets. After all, they were built several hundred years before Ben Franklin few his kites!

How is it that the lighting guy takes all of the outlets? Hasn't he got any multi-outlet boxes? I was also thinking that with the dimmers, it might be prudent to bring along a good power filter.
 
It wouldn't have been much use, TBH, the 25m ones were too short, so each one ended up with another on the end, and there wasn't a central point I could have run to, so the longest job turned out to be cabling.

I made one bad mistake - clearly the piano lacked definition, so at the last minute I managed to get a mic onto it, and set a level before the rehearsal stopped. However - I messed up the routing and it didn't go to the multitrack, but another did instead! Never mind, it6's fine but just too 'distant' in the mix.

The other snag was the organ. The blower motor was very loud. Ok once they started, but in the silence at the start it was there.

Went OK but a long session. 1pm arrival, 9.30 I left after a wayward flight case fell off the path into the graves!
 
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