Acapella Recordings

[belayslave]

Hi all,

First time posting here on H.C. so i'm hoping that someone out there can help me out.

 

I'm currently undertaking thesis studies which will involve doing some acapella/vocal group recordings. The recordings will be done both in a studio and in a 'natural environment' (i.e a concert hall or acoustically designed area).

 

I wanted to see what people out there suggest as the best mic placements for such recordings. Be it for individuals or for groups (i have decided which it'll be yet).

 

Distant vs. close mics

 

Polar patterns

 

specific must have mics?

 

EQ/compression suggestions

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

BS.

[seaneldon]

if the singers are really great, try and get them to perform live in front of one great omnidirectional condenser. at the very least, do the lead on one killer cardioid mic and do all of the other singers in front of one mic.

 

vocal-only music has to be really really full bodied to fill in the hole of "no instruments!", so really full bodied mics and a great preamp to boot are necessary. i'd probably use my brauner vm1-khe in omni and do the whole group. other great mics would be a neumann u87, u47, m49, m50, telefunken ela m251, akg c12, and other such condensers. if you wanna go REALLY old school and get a darker sound, a huge figure of 8 ribbon would be great if you had say, two guys on one side and two on the other. an RCA 44 would be incredible here.

[UstadKhanAli]

I would agree with the above post. You also want some really low-noise equipment, so ideally, you want really high-quality, clean, full mics, mic preamps, yadda yadda that will give you this.

 

Depending on how many people you have, you can start them out in a semi-circle, and have them balance themselves by having people move forward or backward until the blend is just right. It takes time, but works well.

 

You can also try stereo micing configurations, but I really am out of my area of expertise there when it comes to a capella groups (I've only done this twice ever, and the first time was a huge choir, which doesn't really count).

[where02190]

A mono recording is going to sound very one dimensional.

 

How many in the group?

 

For larger groups, I typcically put a 414 in front of each section, bari's, tenors, altos and sopranos, centered on each section and several feet in front. I'll augment with a couple room mics, usually another pair of 414's in an ORTF pair, or spaced omnis. I'll have a soloist mic as well if they step out to perform them.

 

 

If it's a smaller group, I may do jsut the ORTF pair, or spaced omnis, and move them to achieve proper balance of vocals and room.

[seaneldon]

 

Originally posted by where02190 A mono recording is going to sound very one dimensional.

 

 

older recordings are mono. they all sound pretty "full" and "3D" to me. pet sounds, dude. check out the vocal-only disc of the pet sounds box set. all mono. all ridiculous.

[where02190]

mono is mono, and there is no imaging, period. While it can sound good, for a coral group, the spread of the voices is going to help trememdously in separating parts, and sound much more natural, which IMHO should be the goal when recording such groups.

[Brittanylips]

For that kind of thing, I think the most important thing is the room.

 

Find a nice-sounding room. If it does NOT have parallel walls, that is a good thing. Churches often make excellent places to record. Also, recital halls in off hours (night is a good time to record because there's less potential noise from outside).

 

I'd set up the singers, and then just put some kind of simple stereo micing solution in front of them (e.g. a stereo mic, an X/Y arrangement of 2 cardiods, or spaced omnis - 2 omnis seperated by however many feet is appropriate). How far in front depends on the room, the size of the group, and the kind of sound you want. Do a test - if there's too much room sound, move the mics a little closer. If they're not blending, move the mics further away. If you put the mics where they "look right," that's probably a good place to start.

 

then, push play and record and let them do their thing.

 

-plb

[belayslave]

Thanks for the advice guys. I wish i had access to or money to hire/buy some of those mics. I do have access to some 414's. Some (very) large-diaphragm SE mics (Gemini and Z5600).

 

I'll get a bit more specific though now regarding one of the groups.

 

40 piece gospel A Capella group with 3 different lead vocalists. and on a few of the tracks there'll be some percussion, and guitar & banjo.

 

I have one nice room in the studios i have access to which has little parallel walls. nice sounding, wooden floors and acoustically treated with bass traps. Not ideal i admit because for this size group the room is quite small. I'm trying to neogotiate access to a bigger and nicer sounding area.

 

Interesting to hear everyones different approaches. Would love to hear would you would do for the band above.

Thanks again.

BS.

[Maleficio]

Just a note:

 

It's spelled "a capella".

Similar to "a priori".

[belayslave]

Originally posted by Maleficio Just a note: It's spelled "a capella". Similar to "a priori".

 

Thanks Maleficio, as you'll notice in my post above i had realised that and corrected my spelling