In February I had the opportunity to do a live recording with a Renaissance vocal ensemble in an 1800’s church in Dundee (St Salvador’s).

This came about after a mutual friend put me in contact with Graeme Adamson, the ensembe leader. After a discussion talking about the possibility of doing a location recording with them I found out that Graeme had a sound production background as well and was more than happy to assist with the consent of the group agreeing.

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Cantiones Sacrae specialise in choral vocal performances consisting of a Bass, Tenor, Alto and Soprano with works in Latin and English while keeping personal contact with the composer of modern Latin and English work, Peter Kwasniewski, of which his work was recorded for this session.

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The setup involved for the recording was a Stereo Spaced Pair using the Neumann KM183 Microphone in a matched pairing. There was also a secondary recording using a Stereo XY pair which was used as a comparison piece and then blended into the recording of the Stereo Spaced Pair.

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The challenge involved for this recording was in making sure an ideal distance from the performers was in place so that the recording would be able to make use of reverberant room sound (RT60) while making sure the vocalists could still be heard in a clear and blended way.

The challenge that came from the recording that evening was in relation to setting up the Spaced Pair with where the Mic Stands could be positioned, as the ideal spot for them was difficult for the stands to fit into due to limited space. The workaround for this was a slightly closer setup but still enough to pick up the reverberant room sound.

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Health and Safety requirements had to be considered as well before recording could start, thus safe cable routing between the mics and the portable recorders was made sure of by routing the cabling along the central isle of the church while keeping the side isles clear for easy movement from the performance area to the door, minimising the chance of any trips.