Recording our parish schola
  • ossian1898ossian1898
    Posts: 142
    2 Fridays ago, our Schola began recording for the parish website and a CD we intend on making. We uploaded some tracks for people to listen to. But its worth noting that we will probably be re-recording them due to some errant notes...ahem...but I wanted to show them to everyone because the recorder we used was cheap but the results were excellent. Someone at the parish donated an H1 Zoom recorder (Amazon $99) so we put it in the sanctuary behind the altar rail. Take a listen!

    St. Michael's Schola
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Whoa. Gorgeous, even with the errant notes.

    This begs several questions....

    1. Is this a choir of amateurs/volunteers?
    2. How long has the group been together?
    3. How often, how long do they practice each week?
    4. Other than turning the microphone on and pressing REC, did you do anything special with the recording (setup, mixing, processing, etc)?
  • ossian1898ossian1898
    Posts: 142
    We are all volunteers, except our director is paid, though she is a parishoner. Myself and the other bass are organists but we only get paid to play, not sing, and are both parishoners. Three of us are "professionals". All the rest are volunteer and not professional.

    We practice once a week (and Sunday morning pre-Mass) - we recently began our Friday night practices again. The schola has been together for many years but not necessarily this group of people.

    The only thing I did besides press record was to fade in and fade out the silence at the beginning. I also turned the input level down a bit. The recorder is set by default to 100% I believe.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    For some reason, it's not playing or downloading for me on either Safari or Firefox/Mac. Strange...
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    I've just added one of those microphones to my budget request. Handy!
  • ossian1898ossian1898
    Posts: 142
    Jeffrey - try this link for the Angelus and let me know if you can download it from here...

    The Angelus
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Wonderful, Ossian! I have a Zoom H2 and have been equally impressed. Very simple, great quality.

    I just wish our church had such a nice resonant acoustic.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Ooh, ooh, ooh....I just got one of those Alesis Digital video/audio recorders that will allow me to upload videos with audio that's up to snuff directly to YouTube or....!
    I should have learned how to use the da*n thing by last Sunday's schola Mass. It ain't CCW, but it'll do f' now.
  • Mark M.Mark M.
    Posts: 632
    Fantastic, ossian! Inspirational, all-in-all, and a model of what I hope to accomplish in my parish, too. Congrats!
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    Yeah, Ossian, that worked; thanks. No comment yet...I'm at work at the library, so I can't let 'er rip.
  • Darcy
    Posts: 73
    Absolutely beautiful recordings, I LOVED the Angelus! And now I do have recorder envy. Our schola just recorded for a CD at $40 per hour (professional recording studio guy brought his equipment in). This would probably be a smarter way to go. I will check into it... thanks for the idea!
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    A number of years ago we recorded a CD at our parish, a Christmas fund-raiser. I was surprised to find out that it's not the recorder itself that's the most important investment. Instead, the quality of the microphones and their placement were critical. And I was shocked at how much background noise was around - it's not like we're in a busy section of town, but the traffic and wind and airplane noise was just amazing once you started listening closely.

    We recorded some tracks at our house, and did it late at nights so that we could cut down the noise. When you're listening to a CD, stuff like that sticks out like a sore thumb.
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