Day 282 & 283 -- Recording Sessions

From 6-10 on Friday the 2nd and 9-4 on Saturday the 3rd, the Master Singers had recording sessions with an engineer and mixer from California.  The purpose of the sessions was to record our voices of the Christmas concert on top of the orchestration that was done during those sessions.  This is evidently very common when you try to do live recordings because the audience noise, the loudness of the orchestra, etc. sometimes covers up the voices of us as we are singing.  So the goal of this recording marathon was to record the songs with the exact tempo, rests, loud and softs that we did in the concerts so that this recording of the songs would lay down right on top of the live performance and fill in the voice tracks better.  At the concerts we had about 51 singers, but because of the flu and allergies going around, only 31 were there for the recording sessions.  Because that track will be on top of the live track, it will be ok because it just adds depth and richness to the sound we already had. It was very interesting--and tiring--work.  The solos didn't get re-recorded, only the choir parts, so it was very patchwork in how we approached the music.  We might start with the last 4 pages of a song, then skip to the front and do a section, etc.  And we might do the same two measures 8 times before it was seamless with the already recorded one.  Anyway, hopefully it will be wonderful when it comes out this summer.  I pre-ordered 10 CDs so I could share with family and friends when it comes out.  Couldn't really get any good photos because obviously I was singing when it was going on--so these photos are of us listening to the replay of a section we had just finished.  (The lady in front of me sitting is 7 months pregnant so she got to sit and sing).

Listening to what we just recorded to see if it lines up
or must be done yet again!

Standing on left is the engineer Randy who came out from
California and brought all the recording equipment.  Standing on
right is the director Steven

We all had on headphones to hear the orchestra recording from the actual concerts and there were three different tracks done of that at 3 of the concerts--so if the orchestra messed up on one concert, he could switch and listen on the other tract to see if that part was done correctly and use it instead.  This is how the pros get flawless recordings themselves--it really isn't a "sing it through one time  and all is good" type thing.

While the Four Friends had a great and tiring time recording our tapes inside a recording studio, this was a very different but just as enlightening experience.