Recording in rural Kenya – a noobish mobile experience – warning: very long post

[dnbarg]

Hi all,


I posted a few questions regarding a mobile experience I was headed into last fall. A number of people were very generous in their response. This is a great forum. I thought a report would be appropriate. I'm sad I only discovered this forum after my rig was basically set.


The goal was to record a number of choirs in rural Maasailand in Kenya... and, if fortunate, have them record some vocals on a few english songs that we were recording. The CD is now in manufacturing stage. It is the fourth CD raising funds for a relief organization's (Mennonite Central Committee) work with HIV/AIDS around the world.


The technical goals were to create a system that would be mobile, do up to 8 channels well, be a “good value”, and have some value as a good mobile rig in the future. I already had a Digi 002 interface, wanted a Macbook and used Pro Tools comfortably, so I was biased. Much of my early research didn't reveal many better platform options. Yes, there are good 1U i/o units, but I didn't really want to switch platforms. I had only a vague idea about the Sound Devices/Nagra world, and wasn't sure I wanted to work with those in the future. Further, all inquiries into renting gear for travel to rural Kenya (I wanted to be upfront) weren't fruitful.


I knew I wanted better pres and converters than the 002 offered. (I use an HD system at work and can't stand the 002 i/o sound.) So I settled on the Aurora Lynx 8 channel A/D and then had an acquaintance build 8 channels of Seventh Circle Audio pre. 4 c84s (clean), 2 n72 (neve-ish), 2 a12 (api-ish). I figured this was the best “value”. This was lightpiped to the 002.


One of the toughest bits for me to get up to speed on was power. Kenya is 220v, 50hz. Rural Kenya, as it turns out, is a mess. I spoke to numerous pro audio sales people, and it's pretty clear that a lot of people don't know what they're talking about. I purchased a passive 220-110v transformer, and then a Furman PL-Plus-C. This is an area I now know I could have done better, even though it did work out fine. More on this later.


In the mic department, I owned a couple of Studio Projects C1's. From work, I borrowed pairs of rarely used akg c460 with ck1 capsules and 414s. This was all I felt I could take into this experience from work. Finally, I purchased a pair of Neumann km 184s. It was not long into reading this forum that I learned the general opinion of the 184s... I would suggest that the comments are generally correct. These are very fine mics, although too bright... especially once I heard the “talent” I was to record.


As most of the budget went into the above, I skimped a bit in the travel case and mic stand department. Mic stands are mic stands... it's just, more $$ would have equalled much less weight. I took one Shure S-15 for the main pair which was pretty sweet. I also took 5 light-ish K&M boom stands. The case was a tricky matter. I couldn't find good in between options. It was either big $$ for a heavy plywood road case, big $$ for a high-tech molded case, or low dollars for the pre-form Gator shock-mounted unit. Well, for good or ill, I went Gator...


Finally, I put in a cheap presonus headphone amp and a couple of pairs of sony 7506's. I've used them for years and am used to them. I opted to buy a bunch of 50ft mic cables, as I didn't know what I'd be encountering... a snake still requires individual cables. Mic cables are heavy.


Of all matters technical, I wish I would have had the forum's wisdom on this main pair, and power... I knew I was taking a risk with the case (not according to many sales people who thought it would be fine), but felt like I had no choice. Now, this decision is tempered a bit by the fact that I pulled the pre and conversion out and carried them on (good thing my wife and kids were along). So, should disaster strike the case in airline transit, I had the best stuff out... and I had a loose acquaintance with some folks who did some audio in Nairobi who had an i/o I could have used.


So rack gear in the case under the plane (pre and conversion carried on), mics were in a custom made case carried on. I bought a 4” pvc tube to carry shock-mounts and stereo bars, etc. This tube, mic stands and cables all went into a big duffle bag. I put the case in a cardboard box with one handle sticking out so it would look like a beat up box instead of an electronics case.


Other than paying an extra $250 because the case and duffle bag were overweight, it all made it to Nairobi and back with no trouble.


Once in Nairobi, we took the 4hr drive to a small hamlet in Maasailand. The recording site was a fairly new church built of stone, with a tin roof. Here's where things got interesting...
1. major wind every afternoon... there was a space of about 9” between the walls and the roof. I had no wind filtering at all. Nothing. So all the capsules overloaded regularly. They don't wear nylons out there. In fact, many days, the wind lifted the tin where it wasn't attached and slammed it down.
2. Noise outside the church: children yelling, cows sticking their heads in windows and doors.
3. Noise inside the church: this was a community spectacle... our translator would tell the gathered throng to be very quiet, but it rarely lasted through a whole song before someone would walk in with a crying child, or they'd jump up to shoo a cow, or they'd laugh.
4. Wacky electricity. The third of three weeks was a write-off because the electricity went haywire. The meter on my Furman would drop way below the guage, or swing off the top and it would go into overload protection. Or it simply wouldn't come on at all. So, despite my fear, the Furman was great. No equipment was ever wrecked. It simply did what it needed to do. Even when the power was “ok”, it would often sit at the very top of the meter making me nervous.
5. No lights in the church sanctuary, so no work after 5:30 even if there was no wind... not that it really mattered because most of the people participating had walked 2+ hours, often with a child on their back, and they were in charge of feeding the family on limited resources, so would couldn't have worked into the evening.
6. No work before late morning because people had real stuff to do like feeding their family, carrying water, and walking all the way to the church.
7. A different take, culturally, on schedule and excellence. The first day we were planning on serious rehearsal with a bit of recording, we were going to meet at 10:00am. Nobody but us keener north americans til around 1:00pm. So, we worked on a couple of the collaborative songs. I put the mics up without too much attention to detail. We recorded for a bit.... as we're wrapping up, I look at our hosts and say, “well, with a couple more days rehearsal, we'll tighten things up” and they look back and say, “no, that's not going to happen”. Clearly, we would have had a completely different group next time and had to start all over again... So that was that.
8. Bright vocal production. A group of 20 Maasai singers made me wish for earplugs as I moved mics around. The sound is so piercing. So, something a bit less bright than the 184's would have been good. Oh well.


Anyway, this has been a very long post. We went, we did some collaborative recording, I recorded a bunch of choirs. All the gear worked while the electricity was stable. We met the incredibly wonderful Maasai people and built bridges across cultural divides. We are releasing some of the tracks despite wishing things were a bit tighter, and wishing I had had more opportunity to pay attention to the sound. The people buying this CD know they are basically contributing to supporting people and facilitating prevention of HIV/AIDS around the world. I've often said we could shellac a turd and people would buy it to support this important work.... but, I guess, 40,000 cds sold of our first 3 means we best not try the shellac'd turd. This fourth CD is the first cross-cultural effort, and I hope it will be appreciated more than said turd.


If you've made it this far, here are a few links:
A short video (camera audio only) of the recording sessions.
A rough mix of some of what was recorded there.
One of the tunes once mixed. (bass, mandolin and tenor harmony vocals were added once we returned)
A song by one of the choirs. (km184 main pair, 414 in omni as outriggers through the c84 pre's)
(Note: I think you can download the last two tracks as 160kbps mp3s if the player sounds really bad.)


Thanks again to the generous people on this forum. I wish I would have found it earlier... as it turns out, it made me more nervous as I learned about some decisions I could have made more wisely... That's the way it goes.
God be with you all.


Darryl

[hbphotoav]

Cool stuff. I'd agree about the KM184s... might have been a good place for some Beyer M160s, FatHeads, or other robust ribbons. The room certainly was no help. Not much absorption/diffusion in concrete and steel.

And, kudos for giving of your time and talent for folks far outside your ken. I'm a regular with Justice and Mercy International, working in Moldova with orphans. We also do work in Capetown with an HIV/AIDS ministry, and recently have begun work in Ecuador and Brazil. Not much money in it... but not much is needed. It's work of eternal significance.

Thanks for the report.

HB

[mprewett]

Man, Anonyorra sounds awesome. almost made me cry. And that's amazingly tight sounding for rural music.

I would preferentially record in that church. That reverb, the realism, is to die for. Field recording woot!

You can tell from the video that they really dressed up for you.

If I can give a critique, I think you would have been better put to record all the instruments and voices at similar distances in that environment. The english by kenyans, plus the reverb makes their parts sound late. If the western parts had been recorded with that same reverb, maybe a bit closer to the mic for emphasis, it would mesh better. As it is, there's a bit of a disparity between the "studio sound" and the "field recording" sound.

That said, it sounds great.

[dnbarg]

Thanks for the generous comments. It was quite the experience.

@hpphotoav For all the stress, it was incredibly worth it. Financial compensation, thankfully, is not the motivator.

@mprewett Incredibly, they are not dressed up for us. That's everyday wear for the women.
Regarding the timing... that was the best take! Actually, they're simply late. That's not really a function of the reverb. The guitar and main female voice were recorded at the same time in the same space. You can see it happening in the video. I do regret the distance of mic to the choir, but I really hadn't begun concentrating on sound and mic placement. It was a subjective call to leave the choir in the swimmy verb and everything else not so much, but it's kind of a theme song and starts the CD, so it had to be as tight sounding as possible. It does leave them out to swim somewhat, but it was the choice we made.
It's kind of crazy. We sent 7 songs that they could consider learning and they chose the old-timey bluegrass tune... but most of them don't speak english at all, nor have they heard bluegrass before, so it was fairly entertaining...

darryl

[Remoteness]

Excellent report Darryl; keep up the good work!