Voice of Zion is the music ministry of Westminster Student Church in Manila. On Feb 7, 2010 they celebrated a 60th anniversary concert at the Philamlife Auditorium in Manila, Philippines.

We were asked to do remote recording of the choir’s concert. These videos are recordings of their final rehearsals. Featured here are the songs “The Lord is My Shepherd” and “Salmo 150”.

There are no effects or edits to this audio recording of the choir’s performance, just a little leveling of the 7 mics used for the recording. A Royer SF12 stereo ribbon and 3 pairs of condensers; AKG 451, Earthworks TC20 and Oktava MK-012 with Omni capsule.

Recording an ensemble (choral or orchestral) presents challenges with varying degrees of complexity depending on the objectives to be met. My gut instinct when receiving a call for an ensemble recording in a performance hall such as an auditorium or theater is to capture the holistic sound of the ensemble and the performance space. It can get very complex from there as situations such as the following unfold;

1. the performance is a live concert, no spot/section mics allowed on stage
2. the performance is a live concert, audience ambiance must be recorded BUT isolated from the main ensemble sound
3. the performance sound is of the ensemble but there are soloist/solo portions; or sectional solo portions
4. the performance is for recording only and each section must be mic’d in addition to stereo mics
5. there will be several recordings of a piece of music, with the possibility of editing/splicing the best takes into one perfect take.

Remote recording is an exciting and challenging aspect of our operation. Each location presents challenges unique unto itself. Apart from the performers and the performance stage itself, the position/placement of the recording crew and equipment can make or break the recording effort. We have built up a good stock knowledge of performance halls and theaters in the Philippines where we only need to perform simple RT60 tests to have a sense of the hall’s sonic character. We have also recorded and stored room tones of the halls that we have been to for reference (and helpful) during mastering and assembly of the program onto an audio CD  (RedBook). Halls we have experienced are Philamlife Auditorium in Manila, CCP Main Theater (Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo), CCP Little Theater (Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino), Abelardo Hall Auditorium of UP Diliman, and a good assortment of school/college/university auditoriums.

http://www.Sound-Weavers.com specializes in remote recording of choir, orchestra and other ensemble formats. Top quality studio mics and preamps to any location. Photos and Video were recorded with Panasonic Lumix LX3.