Finally ready to record 170 children, in groups of 10...mic question remains. Advice?

[mgraffeo]

Julia,

if it was me (because I'm a cheap bastard), I'd go with one mic in front of each group. Since you're going to have multiple groups, you can use the pan on each track to artificially create a stereo image. To be totally honest, I think that two mics for each group is going to cause more headaches than help, as far as creating a good stereo image during your mixdown.

Don't worry about being "in people's hair". That's what this BBS is here for. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who is really enjoying this thread, and living quasi-vicariously through you (since I really want to go out and buy a B1, but don't have the $ or urgent need right now).

 

[Julia]

One more thing, please?

Friends, if I could impose one more time (again)...

I won't drag you through all the issues, but it looks as though I'm going to have to go back to the original plan of recording the soloists individually using a dynamic SM-58 mic and probably the groups of kids using two SM-58's instead of a condenser. I'm not positive on the last part, but the first is so...

Can you tell me, please, correct mic placement for one SM-58 to record a single soloist? I want to avoid pops and hisses, bad B's and P's and such if at all possible.

Also, should I "normalize" after their vocal track has been laid down? I do have this feature available on my BR-1180.

Thank you very much.

Julia

 

[philboyd studge]

The 58's are very good at eliminating plosives and it won't be a problem no matter where you place them.

Don't nomalize until everthing is recorded and mixed, it should be the very last thing you do in effects processing.

 

[Julia]

OH God...

Thank you. But is it a big problem that I've ALREADY normalized the orchestrations?

Not the vocals. But the orchestrations have been mixed and mastered onto two tracks...and then I normalized.

Is that okay? Or am I in big trouble now?

 

[philboyd studge]

Check the manual, it's likely you can undo the normalization. If not, it's possible you just normalize the new tracks......I'm not sure, it depends on the recorder.

 

[Julia]

Normalization...

Hi again, and thanks again...

As I mentioned earlier I already normalized the orchestration...only because I absolutely had to, because I had recorded some of the songs somewhat low...was getting used to a new recorder (not to mention being new to recording in the first place!), and it was a bit of a problem, so I normalized all nine orchestrations.

Now what I will be doing is having the singers sing to the normalized orchestrations. Hopefully, the vocal tracks won't have to be normalized because hopefully I'll set the levels properly when recording them (that's a stretch, but!)...then I'll just mix the vocal tracks with the already-normalized orchestrations (you're laughing, aren't you?)...and I'll mix it all down on my PC, and poof...a CD will be born.

Oh, boy...

 

[Julia]

P.S. re: normalizing on this unit...

By the way...yes, you can normalize one track at a time on the BR-1180CD.

 

[laptoppop]

Re: Normalization...

and I'll mix it all down on my PC, and poof...a CD will be born.

Just for curiosity... how are you going to transfer it to the PC, and what software will you be mixing it down there on?

-lee-

 

[Julia]

laptopop...

Whenever I transfer from my recording unit to PC, I simply go from line-out of the digital recorder to line-in of my PC's soundcard.

I then record using either MusicMatch or Spin Doctor.

My recording unit, the Boss BR-1180CD does obviously have the capacity to record directly to CD, but only from the mastered tracks, 9/10. In my current situation, I have only the orchestrations mixed/mastered to tracks 9/10, and I'm using the remaining 8 tracks to record vocals. So for this reason I go outside, to the PC, for final mixing. Normally, I don't do this, but in this case it has worked very nicely so far.

 

[laptoppop]

Ahhhh, OK. So the actual "mixing" happens before it hits the PC. That's what confused me. Good luck with the project...please let us know how it goes!
-lee-

 

[Julia]

Important: To PHILBOYD STUDGE

Philboyd Studge wrote:

I do some 'short run' production of CD-R's which usually includes the whole package; recording, mixing, graphics, printing and packaging. In the case of the CD for the school I shot a few pics at one of their performances, worked it up in photoshop and illustrator, took their little tiger logo to print to the inkjet printable CD-R media and shrink wrapped it....they were all quite pleased.

Hey...and Happy New Year!

I was wondering if it would be at all possible to have you do our "short run" of the CD's for us? We'd need 100, and you would not have to do any recording or mixing at all. I would just send you one CD and a couple of photos, and ask you to print and package 100 more.

Would that be at all possible? If so, could you please let me know the cost involved as well?

Thank you very much.

Julia

 

[Julia]

To laptoppop...re: CD burners...

Dear laptoppop...

You wrote:

In terms of duplicating the disks -- if it goes too slowly, you can buy a 40X CD burner for as low as $40. these days. Just a thought.

Someone recently told me that the faster the burner, the more likely the errors in burning will be.

Is that true? My burner is very slow. If I were to buy a faster burner, would I sacrifice quality in terms of faster burning?

Thank you.

Julia

 

[laptoppop]

Re: To laptoppop...re: CD burners...

Someone recently told me that the faster the burner, the more likely the errors in burning will be.

Is that true? My burner is very slow. If I were to buy a faster burner, would I sacrifice quality in terms of faster burning?

Unfortunately, the answer is "it depends". It depends on the exact burner and the exact media used. However, ultimately, on a CD you are storing a set of numbers. These numbers use extra numbers to correct any errors in the numbers before converting into sound.

Trivia: the error correcting code is the Reed-Solomon code. It was an error correcting code that was developed a long time ago in order to be easy to implement in hardware. By the time CDs were developed, the algorithm for the code had passed into the public domain. I've worked with Dr. Reed -- he's a brilliant man, who didn't get a penny from all the CDs which have used his work.

Anyway, all CDs have errors which are corrected before playback. Some CDs have more errors than others -- but as long as the error rate is "correctable", the player will play the CD just fine.

Some people claim to hear a sonic difference between CDs burned at different speeds. I am VERY skeptical that many such claims would stand up under good double blind testing where the listener does not know what disk is being played.

All that being said -- to be horribly honest, I expect that the sonic difference, if any, between CDs recorded at different speeds would be tiny compared to other parts of your signal chain. I recently finished a project where we needed 300 CDs by Thursday morning (it was Tuesday), and we hadn't finished the mixing yet! We finished the mixing Tuesday night and put two cheapo 40x drives (happened to be Memorex) into two PCs and Wednesday night was a burning party, with three of us burning CDs and printing labels from a laptop and assembling the disks. We happened to use Memorex brand CD-Rs, and had about 3 bad disks all night long. We did the burning at 40x, and everyone was very happy with the results -- the disks sounded fine.

Of course, to confuse the issue -- when I am making a CD master to take to a duplicating house, I'll buy the best media I can find and burn several copies at a slower speed, just to be safe.

Good luck!!
-lee-