Spatial Recording & reproduction: Glasgow Musical Theatre Choir 

This project has been included in my portfolio as I believe it shows my skills and abilities in a few different ways than my other projects. This was more out of my comfort zone than any of the other projects and I was excited to take on the task and learn some new skills as well as working with a new style of performance and a new genre. 

In my personal experience, I normally work 1 on one with artists in studio, however for this myself and my group transported the mobile studio equipment to a venue to record a large choir group.  

To set this up, I made contact with the group via Instagram, explaining who I was and the task that we were looking to carry out. From here I spoke with Lindsey, who was the choir master and organizer of the group via direct messages and then held multiple meetings over the phone to discuss the project, what we were looking to create from the recordings as well as what the choir could get from this experience. Our goal was to record the choir using advance mic techniques and create an immersive spatial mix to be played back on a 5.1 speaker set up and the choir were to receive back professional level mixes of their tracks to use in promotion and advertising for the group. I feel that this shows my skills in networking and abilities to communicate and negotiate in the industry. 

From here we set up a visit to their venue, The Pyramid in Anderston, to review the area that we would be recording in as well as to meet the group and listen to them perform. My team and I created a floorplan on the visit, noting where the power sources in the room were located, how big the group was in order to plan the mic layout and see how we could position the group in order to accommodate the mic technique that we selected. This shows my skills in being able to work with a group as well as being able to plan in advance for recordings and sessions. 

After working out the floorplan with my group, we set out to decide on which mic technique to use to achieve the spatial recordings eventually settling on the Fukada Tree technique and putting spot mics on the 4 different sections of the choir. We then decided on the layout that we would use, based on the plugs available, the venue size and the choir size, mapping out on the floorplan where everything would be, including the cables, interface and mics/mic stands.  

For the recording, we rented out the mobile studio equipment and transported it to the venue. Lindsay was very helpful throughout the process as she spoke to the venue and allowed us to get in an hour earlier than the start time of the session. We followed the set up of a fukada tree, ensuring that the measurements between mics, polar patterns and mic placements were all correct, then linked them to the interface with XLR cables. We set up a desk in front of the choir and created the session on Pro Tools then worked with the choir during their warmups to fix the levels of the mics. From here we recorded the full session, adding markers as the session was in process, to note when different songs or vocal exercises were taking place to help us during the mixing stage. We then completed taking down, packing and transporting the equipment back. This was a very enjoyable experience as the choir were accommodating and very talented, as well as the experience being something so far different from what I am used to in production and recording.  

 

 

This project over all shows my abilities in recording and mixing, using advance techniques. I gained the skills to create a professional mix from my 5 years experience making music as well as the mixing module from HNC in college as well as from the spatial module. 

 

LOG  

Week 1  

In class we covered the different 5.1 mic techniques, discussing what their uses were and why they would be used both functionally and creatively.  

We discussed the different mic arrays for spatial recordings, including Decca Tree, IRT Cross, Optimised Cardioid Triangle, Double MS, Fukada Tree and Hamasaki Square. 

I made contact with Glasgow Musical Theatre choir and explained the project to Lindsay, the choir master. We arranged a telephone meeting to discuss this further.  

I explain on the phone that we looking to make an immersive 5.1 mix and after looking at several choirs in the area I felt that this choir would suit the project best. I also offered to send a stereo mix of the session to her for the choir to use in promotional videos or however they would like. Lindsay was very happy with this and we then discussed dates of when would be best to visit. The choir had a concert in the last week of March so we agreed to record the session after the concert so as not to interfere with the concert rehearsals.  We also agreed that we would visit the venue to meet the choir as well as review the venue for our recording, this would be done the week before the recording. 

 

Week 2 

I travelled to the venue, The Pyramid in Anderston, with my team of Bruce, Ryan and Lucy. We met with Lindsay and she introduced us to the choir. At this point, while the choir was setting up, we took note of the size of the hall, available plug points and the layout of the choir. We made a diagram showing the mic set up required for the 5.1 recording and how we would set this up with the choir’s layout. At this point the group all agreed that we would use the Fukada Tree mic technique for the recording, which features 5 cardioid mics as the left, centre, right, left surround and right surround and then 2 omni mics at either end of the left and right mic. As the choir is split in 4 sections (Soprano 1, Soprano 2, Alto & Baritone) there will also be a spot mic on each section to allow us to get the best blend between each. This was based on the amount of mics that we would have to use due to having multiple spot mics, as well as based upon the space that we had in the venue and the layout of the choir and room. 

After we were done with our review of the venue we were invited to stay and listen to a few of their songs before leaving.  

 

Week 3  

Our group practiced setting up the 5.1 mic layout, taking note of the measurements and timing how long it took to set it all up. We also were given a run through of the mobile recording equipment by Clark, showing us how to set it all up and use it.  

We made a check list of all the equipment that we would require for the job and then started loading it into the car to transport. I stored the equipment in my house for the night.  

 

Equipment List 

The equipment we require for this recording is listed below: 

• 5x Rode NT55 small diaphragm condensers
• 4x SE-2A small diaphragm condensers
• 2x Lewitt LCT 441 large diaphragm condensers
• 11 mic stands
• ZOOM H3-VR mic
• ZOOM camera
• 11 XLR cables
• Laptop
• 3x 8 channel Audient pre-amps
• 16 channel digital recorder
• 2 cable reels
• Headphones
• Measuring tape
• Protractor

 

 

We travelled to the venue, arriving an hour before the rehearsal started in order to set up. Using the Fukada Tree mic technique, we ensured that the measurements and mic layouts, including direction and mic polar patterns were all accurate to the plan.  

We set up the mobile recording equipment and interface, loading up a Pro Tools session and ensured that all mics were receiving signal. From here we checked the levels during the warm ups. Pro Tools was showing no clipping on any of the channels however the interface was showing red lights to show distortion, I listened with headphones and heard no distortion and we all agreed we were happy with Pro Tools showing no distortion. 

We recorded the entire session, adding markers throughout the session to note the song names and any important parts that we wanted to take note of, for instance warm ups and speaking.  

After the session we spoke to the choir, thanking them for their time and giving us this opportunity. After this, we saved the session and packed all of the equipment away, returning it to the college the next day.  

Week 4   

  We listened back to the session and there was a lot of distortion on the recording. As a group, we discussed ways of potentially fixing this using RX and the techniques that we learned in the restoration unit that we had just finished as well as potentially going back to re-record the choir. We agreed that we would try to restore it first and then if we were not able to then we would re-record. 

We bounced the full mix out and loaded it into RX and tried the spectral de-noise, de-clip, de click and spectral repair functions to try and fix the distortion issues but none were successful in completely erasing the issues. We also tried using EQ to cut the distorting frequencies, but this didn’t work either. At this point, Lucy decided to take the project to her home studio over the easter break to work on it on Pro Tools or even to just find sections of the project that would be salvageable for our project. 

 

Week 4  

After the Easter break, we met as a team in the studio to discuss how we would move forward with the project. We agreed that the individual stems that we recorded were a lot more manageable than the putting the full project into RX. We listened back to the separate section of the recording and found that we had an entire song that only had minimal distortion, so we decided that this would be the part that we would use for the project. From here we bounced each individual stem from the Pro Tools session and loaded it into RX. We used the de-clip & de-click function on the individual stems and were able to take out all of the distortion. 

From here we loaded the restored stems into Pro Tools and set the session and IO setting for a 5.1 mix. 

Week 5  

We set up our Pro Tools session and discussed what we wanted to do with this mix. We agreed that we wanted it to sound as close to the real thing as possible so we would set up the stems as the original mics were set up so that when you are sitting in the “sweet spot” and listening on a 5.1 set up it would sound like you are sat in front of the choir. 

To do this we panned each stem using  the 5.1 panner and listening to decide where the stems sat best in the immersive mix. This ensured a realistic sound and immersive sound. 

We did EQ on each channel, cutting the low end to avoid muddiness and any unwanted frequencies. The EQ was fairly uniformal on the tracks, however on the baritone stems we cut less of the low end and on the soprano stems we boosted high frequencies.  

We had discussed adding reverb during the mixing and auditioned it on a few of the stems, however we agreed that this took away some of the positive elements from the original recording. The natural reverb of the room that we recorded in added a realistic element to the 5.1 so we agreed to not add any and keep the natural reverb as it was in the recording. 

As we wanted this to be a realistic and immersive track, this was all of the processing we decided to do, opting for a more stripped back and real sound.  

At this point we got creative and automated panning for the final vocal run of the track. We tried different combinations of automation to really utilise the immersive sound that we could create with the 5.1 speaker set up. We agreed on playing the track on the 4 corner speakers individually and then fading into all of the speakers to finish.

The mixing process for this project was fairly short due to the vocals on the recording being of a high standard and because we had cleaned up the stems using RX so there wasn't a lot of work to be done, another factor being that we wanted a stripped back and realistic sounding mix.

We completed this process as a team and critiqued and amended the mix as we went.

 

Challenges  

Making initial contact with the choir was the first challenge I faced in this project, however I feel that I had built it up more in my head to be challenging rather than it actually being a challenge. I felt beforehand that it would have been difficult to even find a group or band to record and that that would be the main challenge of the project. I made contact with the choir weeks in advance, expecting it to be a long drawn out process, however this couldn’t have been further from the truth. Lindsay, the choirmaster was very accommodating and was interested and excited about the project from the beginning and the entire process from contact to meeting the choir and assessing the venue to the actual recording process was very straightforward, with the help from the group that I worked in as well as from the choir group. The task itself wasn’t a major challenge however because I felt that it was going to be more difficult, it felt like a challenge to me before even starting.  

For this project, we learned new microphone and mixing techniques in class, however my group was only able to practice setting up the mics once before the recording took place. This was a challenge as the mics had to be set up to their specific polar patters and specific directions and had to be set up at specific distances. We took the floorplan to the venue and referred to it during set up, this included all measurements, polar patterns and directions for the set up which was incredibly useful, we also took a measuring tape to ensure that the measurements were accurate. 

We had the Easter holiday during this project as well as 2 other Mondays off, which is when the spatial class is. This hindered our group as it limited studio access and the ability to work together on the project. We were able to overcome this by planning out what we were going to do in advance at the end of each session. The mixing part of the project didn't take too long, so overall this didn't affect the project a lot. 

During the soundcheck on recording day, Pro Tools showed no sign of clipping or distortion and when I listened on headphones it sounded fine. During the recording I was worried about it potentially being too quiet, this was not the case. We had distortion and volume issues to the point that we thought the audio was unusable. Luckily, we had just started our restoration unit a few weeks prior, so we were able to salvage and restore a full song from the recordings. This was likely the biggest challenge I have faced in any of my units, let alone the artefacts used in my portfolio, as it was the first time that it seemed that the work I had done wouldn't have been good enough to pass the unit. Before restoration we had considered re-recording another rehearsal, however this would have required setting up another date and hauling the equipment and storing it again, so it was fortunate that we were able to repair the original audio. The main challenge of this all was not the act of restoration, which we completed as a group in less than a day, it was the struggle beforehand of us trying to work out what to do and how it could be fixed. I was fortunate enough to be working in a group of producers who were all capable of taking on the task, working together and getting the outcome that we wanted.