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Ensemble Recording
Synopsis
For this part of the project, I travelled over to St George’s Hall in Bradford to record Yorkshire symphony orchestra, accompanied by Bradford Festival Choral Society (performing Haydn, The Creation). Totalling to around 150 performers. The layout of the performers allowed for some interesting opportunities when it came to recording. The orchestra were on the main stage, while the choir were on raised tiers behind the stage (see appendix 1). I felt a mixture of both confidence and apprehensive going into this recording as I had been involved in quite a few orchestra and choir recordings leading up to this would only be the second time I was leading the session.
Research
Leading up to this recording, I was involved in many classical recordings. Including both choirs and orchestras (both professional and amateur). The first notable recording that contributed to my research for this project was the recording of West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra in Chapel Allerton earlier on this year (See appendix 2). It was a 60 piece orchestra with a tuba solo. This recording gave me my first taste of planning in detail for a large scale project, having to consider everything from access to power sockets, being aware of where fire exits may be and where we would be able to get in with mics (without getting in the way of the orchestra and audience). Luckily, Dan was able to attend the venue for a site visit a few days before the concert, meaning we were able to be prepared for these sorts of things. The next recording I was involved in was assist Ollie in recording the choir at Leeds Minster as they performed their Thursday Evening Evensong. This was a smaller scale recording, only using a total of 6 mics. 4 on the choir and an XY pair for room mics. We encountered some issues here, with both some major phase issues and the organ not translating well in the recordings which resulted in it sounding a bit weak. A few months later I was part of the recording team for a concert which a fellow student had put on, it was in the venue at the Conservatoire and it was his own arrangements of Coldplay songs. This included a full orchestra, along with more contemporary instruments like drums and electric guitars. This recording gave me an idea of how long this can all take as we arrived at 7.30am and didn’t end up leaving till gone 11pm that night. Another recording session which contributed to my research was the recording of Curore orchestra at Howard Assembly Rooms, in early march (See Appendix 3). They are a professional orchestra who had got in touch with Si, looking to be recorded so he asked me and a few other students to do the job. We did a great job with the recording, receiving some high praise from the conductor, Will. This was down to a mixture of the sound of the room, our recording and the quality of their playing. The final recording which I used as research was the recording of Airedale Symphony Orchestra at Kings Hall in Ilkley (See Appendix 4). The reason this recording was so beneficial was because it was me leading it. Which meant I was responsible for everything including risk assessments.
Project Management
I felt confident going into this recording session. This is down to the extensive research I had done leading up to it. I was offered this recording by the conductor Ben of Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra (who wasn’t conducting on the day), Ben then put me in touch with the people who work in the venue and the conductor of the choir. I sent an email to everyone, introducing myself, announcing what I planned to do on the day and asking any questions I had about the day (See Appendix 5). I was mainly in conversation with Barry (See Appendix 6), who is the deputy head technician for Bradford Theatres. He was incredibly helpful both in the days leading up to the concert and on the actual day. Once this was all arranged, I met up with Ollie who was assisting me on the day. We discussed mic choices once I had told him about the limited amount of mics we were going to be able to use. As there was such limited space, we had to make do with a total of 6 microphones. We had an orchestra left and right, a choir left and right and then a stereo pair of KM184’s acting as room mics (these came to do a lot of the heavy lifting in the mixing stage as they had the most even blend of both the choir and orchestra). When we turned up, Barry had very kindly done a big part of our set up for us. He had set up where our control station was going to be (directly above a wall box) and he had patched the venue’s stage boxes to the wall box by us. This meant we didn’t have to do any cable runs as it was all going through the venues hard wired patch system. We plugged our mics into the stage boxes on the stage and then used male to male XLR’s (Which Barry also provided) to go from the wall box into the interface. I then carried out my risk assessment while Ollie taped down any wires which needed it. As there was such limited space on stage, I bought some G clamps so I could attach mics to the banisters on the balcony. These were our choir mics. Our orchestra mics were the only mics we had on stage. We were set up and ready within an hour and a half of our arrival. This gave me time to carry out my risk assessment (See Appendix 7), before the orchestra and choir arrived for rehearsal. During the rehearsal, I set all my levels and then we were ready to record. Once we had finished recording, I was very happy with the overall sound. This is until I listened back in detail and noticed a slight humming which was quite apparent in the quieter sections. I know this wasn’t the mics or the cables because we tested them before hand, it must have been some electrics inside the venue. I managed to tame the humming with a high pass filter on the master (See Appendix 8). Other than this, when mixing, I tried to keep It as stripped back as possible. Relying purely on: subtle subtractive EQ, light compression acting as “glue”, panning and reverb, which was an impulse response I captured of St Georges Hall on the day and dragged into space designer (See Appendix 9).
Evaluation
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Found Sounds Composition
Synopsis
The narrative for this track was all centred around riding my bike. I wanted to create as many sounds as possible out of my bike. While creating sounds from the bike, I wanted to capture the feeling of freedom you get when riding fast, feeling the wind on your face and pure joy.
Research
[Overwrite this text with detail of relevant practice based on academic research]
Project Management
[Overwrite this text with detailed information on the full management of the project]
Evaluation
[Overwrite this text with a full critical evaluation of both the process and the final product]
Audio Documentary
Synopsis
[Overwrite this text with an outline/overview of the project]
Research
[Overwrite this text with detail of relevant practice based on academic research]
Project Management
[Overwrite this text with detailed information on the full management of the project]
Evaluation
[Overwrite this text with a full critical evaluation of both the process and the final product]
Appendices and Bibliography
Appendix 1 ____________________________________________________Appendix 2
Appendix 3______________________________________ ______________Appendix 4
Appendix 5____________________________________________________Appendix 6
Appendix 7____________________________________________________Appendix 8
