Rich_S
Member
No noobie questions today, just a story with a happy ending.
My daughter is a senior in high school, working on a senior capstone project of composing and recording a short piece of music in the fantasy film/video game genre. Last spring, she conducted her school choir in a short a cappella piece. The plan was that she would orchestrate it and then perform it again this year at the spring concert. That plan fell apart due to student's busy schedules. Too many kids had multiple activities and there were no opportunities for the choir and orchestra to rehearse together. So, the project changed: the orchestration would be recorded using VSTs.
Of course, I'm not privy to any of this information. All the work goes on behind the teenager's closed bedroom door. Then on Tuesday morning, I received a text from Yvonne saying that "we" need to record the choir at school, Thursday at 8:30 AM. Two days to get ready. Aaaaaaaaaugh!
First problem: microphones. I've haven't actually done any live recording in recent years, just used Reaper to re-mix '80s-vintage 4-track cassette demos. So, I texted my neighbor Rob, who teaches audio engineering part-time at the Crane School Of Music (just down the road, in town). Score! Rob has an old pair of C451's and a twin mounting bracket that he was willing to lend me. I set it all up in the family room to confirm that my laptop and Scarlett 2i2 will power the 451's and luckily, it all worked.
Then last night, I got to thinking... what exactly was the choir going to be singing, and how did it relate to the moderately complex orchestral piece she has composed in Reaper? Were they separate pieces, or one and the same? Bad news: it turned out that last year's a cappella piece is now the last minute of a 2:30 orchestral piece. Gah! The choir has to sing in time (and in tune) with the orchestra!
I've never done anything like this before, and just know enough to know that it ain't easy. There's no way the entire chorus can monitor the orchestra parts: we don't have a monitor system nor 40 pairs of headphones, and we can't monitor with speakers because they'll bleed into the recording. So, we decided that Yvonne would listen to the orchestra on headphones, and conduct the choir a cappella. We would just have to hope that the choir-room piano was in tune with the VST orchestra, since they'd be getting their starting pitches from the piano. Since the choral section is only 60 seconds, long, we'd take the chance that they'd stay in tune from beginning to end.
I showed up at the school this morning at 8:00 and talked my way past the front-desk security. It only took a few minutes to set up the recording rig, but then I noticed a problem: I was only getting one mic, from channel 1 on the Scarlett, split to both the left and right sides of my choir track. It took me a few minutes to drill down into Reaper's routing table and figure out the right combination of red dots to give me my stereo recording. Fortunately, the teacher wanted to warm up the choir and practice the piece a few times, so I wasn't holding them up with my random clicking.
We took a shot at it. The first take fell apart halfway through; the teacher had rehearsed them at a slower tempo and the choir was dragging. So we tried it again, this time with Yvonne banging the tempo on the piano lid with one hand while conducting with the other. Then, the teacher suggested they run through it a couple time at a faster tempo, just to get them used to it.
Then we went for it. We recorded two takes, and they both seemed to come out okay. Yvonne the perfectionist seemed satisfied. I was somewhere between "pleasantly surprised" and "amazed". My kid really had no idea how difficult what she was doing was, she just went in and did it.
Now I need to give her a crash course in mixing, for which I am supremely under qualified. Onward!
My daughter is a senior in high school, working on a senior capstone project of composing and recording a short piece of music in the fantasy film/video game genre. Last spring, she conducted her school choir in a short a cappella piece. The plan was that she would orchestrate it and then perform it again this year at the spring concert. That plan fell apart due to student's busy schedules. Too many kids had multiple activities and there were no opportunities for the choir and orchestra to rehearse together. So, the project changed: the orchestration would be recorded using VSTs.
Of course, I'm not privy to any of this information. All the work goes on behind the teenager's closed bedroom door. Then on Tuesday morning, I received a text from Yvonne saying that "we" need to record the choir at school, Thursday at 8:30 AM. Two days to get ready. Aaaaaaaaaugh!
First problem: microphones. I've haven't actually done any live recording in recent years, just used Reaper to re-mix '80s-vintage 4-track cassette demos. So, I texted my neighbor Rob, who teaches audio engineering part-time at the Crane School Of Music (just down the road, in town). Score! Rob has an old pair of C451's and a twin mounting bracket that he was willing to lend me. I set it all up in the family room to confirm that my laptop and Scarlett 2i2 will power the 451's and luckily, it all worked.
Then last night, I got to thinking... what exactly was the choir going to be singing, and how did it relate to the moderately complex orchestral piece she has composed in Reaper? Were they separate pieces, or one and the same? Bad news: it turned out that last year's a cappella piece is now the last minute of a 2:30 orchestral piece. Gah! The choir has to sing in time (and in tune) with the orchestra!
I've never done anything like this before, and just know enough to know that it ain't easy. There's no way the entire chorus can monitor the orchestra parts: we don't have a monitor system nor 40 pairs of headphones, and we can't monitor with speakers because they'll bleed into the recording. So, we decided that Yvonne would listen to the orchestra on headphones, and conduct the choir a cappella. We would just have to hope that the choir-room piano was in tune with the VST orchestra, since they'd be getting their starting pitches from the piano. Since the choral section is only 60 seconds, long, we'd take the chance that they'd stay in tune from beginning to end.
I showed up at the school this morning at 8:00 and talked my way past the front-desk security. It only took a few minutes to set up the recording rig, but then I noticed a problem: I was only getting one mic, from channel 1 on the Scarlett, split to both the left and right sides of my choir track. It took me a few minutes to drill down into Reaper's routing table and figure out the right combination of red dots to give me my stereo recording. Fortunately, the teacher wanted to warm up the choir and practice the piece a few times, so I wasn't holding them up with my random clicking.
We took a shot at it. The first take fell apart halfway through; the teacher had rehearsed them at a slower tempo and the choir was dragging. So we tried it again, this time with Yvonne banging the tempo on the piano lid with one hand while conducting with the other. Then, the teacher suggested they run through it a couple time at a faster tempo, just to get them used to it.
Then we went for it. We recorded two takes, and they both seemed to come out okay. Yvonne the perfectionist seemed satisfied. I was somewhere between "pleasantly surprised" and "amazed". My kid really had no idea how difficult what she was doing was, she just went in and did it.
Now I need to give her a crash course in mixing, for which I am supremely under qualified. Onward!
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