St. Paul's (Rome) recordings

[hbphotoav]

I've just finished a week in Rome with the International Church Music Festival's 25th Anniversary event. My job (with my wife Carol and our friend from England, Steve Wankling) was to capture the event, audio and video, for a souvenir DVD for those attending. We recorded choirs at Basilica San Giovanni, rehearsal at All Saints Church near the Spanish Steps, the apse at Basilica St Paul's Outside the Walls (SPOTW), Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, St Peter's Square (the Pope himself applauded the 400+ singers - from seven countries and five language groups - offering a :45 version of Puccini's "Gloria"), the Pantheon (where a fabulous choir of 25 high school students from Annapolis MD reduced me to tears twice during their performance), and, finally, the nave at Basilica St Paul's Outside the Walls for the gala final concert.

Every day was a different venue, with different groupings of singers and instrumentalists (piano for rehearsal early in the week; orchestra in rehearsal and for the gala concert), mostly acapella. My main setup, because of the time constraints and the thin line we skated everywhere because of our "professional" (defined as a tripod under a Sony Z1U HDV camcorder) equipment, was a ORTF pair of Sennheiser MKH8040 cardioids directly into the Z1U's preamp section, on battery. We were usually a good 30m from any 230V outlet... so self-contained was the rule. We were happy to have a stable camera and a Manfrotto with the stereo bar.

The final concert was, however, different. We made friends with the Monsignor, and with the security people at SPOTW, and had a faxed permission letter from the Vatican allowing us access to power, camera platforms and tripods for the three cameras.

The audio chain for that evening was: the 8040s on a 5m stand approximately 4m behind the conductor (the conductor stand was moved back to accommodate two 7' Alphonsi grands for the Poulenc concerto, where the mic stand was about 1m behind the conductor); two AKG C451 3.5m up in a wide splay (140 degrees, 30cm or so) centered, between the winds and the first row of choir to bring up the tenors and basses a bit; and a Shure Beta87A/Sennheiser RF unit for the spoken bits, all running into a D.A.V. BG8 mic amp feeding a Mackie Onyx 1220. The Mackie's onboard ADDA card fed my MacBook Pro through Logic 8 to a small 320GB HDD; the main balanced analog outs fed the line inputs on the master Z1U camcorder and out via FireWire into a HDV-M15U deck, to enable the use of a 184-minute cassette; the RCA outputs fed a Edirol R-09HR for a 44.1/24 backup recording; and the Aux 1 send was used to feed the Beta87A to the house PA (it was also used with a E6 headworn mic during rehearsal to amplify the conductors' voices to the 400+ singers surrounding the orchestra). There were cameras centered (master) and house right ("feature" shots of singers, soloists, etc), with a third locked-down camera capturing the conductor from within the orchestra. Yes... it all traveled in 4x25kg cases and a couple of carryons. Barely.

Attached are a couple of files snipped from the concert tracks. The only "mix" was to dip the C451s about 3 dB from their nominal tracked level, and to pan them in about 20% toward the center... the 8040s were hard L/R. Your comments are greatly appreciated. The first is "Cantate Domino" by Giuseppe Pitoni, a 17th century acapella piece. The second is a minute of the "Concerto in d minor for Two Pianos and Orchestra" by Francis Poulenc. The C451s were muted for this piece.

Thanks for listening. We had a great time in some pretty stinkin' awesome acoustic spaces, even if it was run-and-gun all week long.

HB

The first photo is Sir David Willcocks conducting the "Hallelujah" from "Messiah" to provide a sense of the room. In the second, Paul Leddington Wright conducts Nielson & Young in the Poulenc. He also conducted the choir in the Pitoni.

[Teddy Ray]

too dry for my tastes, the music does not have enough distance to develop...and that is a great acoustic, yes?

[mljung]

...but with that looong reverb tail underneath it'll quickly be washy thing if microphones were to far away, I believe - Ok for the Choir, but a mess for Poulenc. That taken into consideration I think you actually got a pretty good compromise!

::
Mads

[Corran]

Beautiful church! I also think it's a little upfront sounding, perhaps omnis in the same position would have been perfect, or maybe not. You can hear the great reverb tail but it's almost a surprise considering how dry the music is. Maybe even just a couple feet back would have done it?

The tone of the recording though is excellent.

[hanuman]

I once attended a Petit Messe Solennella and the church was full of black curtains, hangin over some arches, reducing the reverb. Also there is a big difference in R and L channel. How did that happen. Your main mic set was the ORTF right?

[Empiria]

I played on that festival few times with a Polish group Missio Musica. That was in Coventry, England. Nice to see Sir David Willcocks in a good shape, as well as Nielson & Young. Is Elwyn Raymer still involved?

It's a very nice venue. I like the Poulenc sound. Yes, a little too close for my taste, but well balanced, good image, nice sound overall. I would try wide cardioids or even omnis in that room. The choir sample has some distortion. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't sound clean. Sometimes it comes for bad power or long coiled power cables. I don't know.

[hbphotoav]

Originally Posted by Empiria

I played on that festival few times with a Polish group Missio Musica. That was in Coventry, England. Nice to see Sir David Willcocks in a good shape, as well as Nielson & Young. Is Elwyn Raymer still involved?

It's a very nice venue. I like the Poulenc sound. Yes, a little too close for my taste, but well balanced, good image, nice sound overall. I would try wide cardioids or even omnis in that room. The choir sample has some distortion. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't sound clean. Sometimes it comes for bad power or long coiled power cables. I don't know.

Tomasz! How good to hear from you! My favorite concert accordianist! Is Missio Musica still active? Yes, Elwyn is still running "the show." We will return to Coventry next year, in late May. Sir David is amazing. I hope I am as vigorous at 90! You are well?

I, too, thought the pianos sounded quite nice... considering they were without lids, and 4m under the 8040s.

My mics choices were limited (I have been burned by too much "room" with my M296 and 4061 omnis at Coventry and Bern) and my primary goal was to "feature" the choral sound, with ambience, rather than the orchestra, or the room. Also, you may remember the hectic nature of all things ICMF... we had about five hours to set up, audio and 3 cameras video, soundcheck rehearsal, and record the event. So... I opted for a "tighter" and more present vocal sound than in the past (singers have complained about "mushy" vocal sounds), but with a nice bit of the room in the tail. I was also limited (by airline restrictions and budget) to two pairs, as described. I appreciate your, and the other, comments... next time, it will be better!

About distortion... I am in Moldova for two more weeks before I have a "proper" listen at home. I know the sopranos (house left) were perhaps (as usual) louder than they ought to have been... certainly vis a vis the altos house right (only three rehearsals for 400+ singers from several language groups for the 90-minute programme)... but I will check both the L/R video mix and tracks for distortion.

Always learning...

Harry

[Empiria]

Hi, Harry! Good to hear from you, too! I'm glad the ICMF does the job. Please, greet friends for me. Yes, Missio Musica is still active. We are about to record a new CD with a chamber ensemble, choir and Olga Pasichnyk (Personal webpage: Olga Pasichnyk) as a soloist. Older christian hymns arranged by myself.

Yes, I know it's always too little time. You have five minutes to prepare, but everyone expects an audiophile sound. Live recording, little time, it's always a compromise. You did a very good job!

Would be glad to meet you somehow, somewhere, sometime.