Need help on recording

[cw4u]

I will be recording a choir at my school for one of their performances. I already know some stuff about audio recording since I do a podcast for my church. I also have some experiencing mixing audio. What are some things I might need when I try to record the choir. The school is providing the mixing board, mics and booms. I will basically just plug my computer into one of their matrix outs. Will I need some type of specialized card to record? I want something that sounds great, but requires little investment. (<$100) I will probably be bringing my desktop with me since it just has more computing power than anything else I have. So I guess, here are the three questions I need ansered:

1. What type of sound card do I need?
   
2. Will stereo audio out from the mixer work fine? Or will I need to input each microphone into my computer?
   
3. Is their anything that I need to watch out for while doing this live performance?

Thanks for all of the help.

[Moseph]

1. Any soundcard/audio interface that has some sort of stereo input will probably work. Depending on what you get, you may also need some converter cables (possibly XLR-to-1/4" if you're going from the microphones, or possibly 1/4"-to-RCA if you're going from the board). Basically, you just need to know what kind of cable the output is going to be on and what kind of cable your audio interface can record from.

Something of this sort (http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHFCA202) is probably what you should be looking for. (I have no idea if that particular audio interface is any good, and there may be cheaper things. Maybe someone can give some specific recommendations?)

2. You could do either. Probably from the board would be simplest, since any audio interface in the sub-$100 range probably won't have stereo XLR-inputs, which is what mic cable is (although, like I said above, converter cables could probably take care of that).

3. Set up and test as early as possible -- don't just show up half-an-hour before the performance and expect things to go smoothly.

While recording, you can either keep going through the entire performance or stop recording between songs. Only do the latter if you're absolutely sure that there's no chance they'll start singing again before you're ready.

Set your input levels before you start and then leave them there. Don't fool with the input levels during the actual performance unless it's clipping (and maybe not even then, depending on circumstances).

When you're getting stuff ready to be burned to a CD, you'll need to decide whether you're going to normalize the volume based on the peak volume in the entire performance or based on the peak volume in each individual song. It's basically up to you, but never normalize movements of a multi-movement work separately -- base it on the peak of the entire work.

(And make sure you know your software -- I once recorded an entire recital only to find that Pro Tools had not, in fact, been recording! )

[dannthr]

Do your mics need phantom power or preamplification?

Does your mixer have mic pres/phantom power?

You're probably better routing the signal through the mixer first for all the reasons mentioned above.

You want to set the loudest noise that is planned during the performance to be so hot as to almost clip, the most volume you can get during the performance will increase the quality of your normalization later on.

If you can (have to) stage the mics, I would set them (stereo I assume) a quarter in on each side and maybe starting at five feet from the choir, move away one foot for like... every row you have. So a three row choir would be like 8 or 9 feet away. Just don't sit them in the audience--if there is an audience. If you don't really have much room, at the edge of the stage is probably fine--just not too close. You're probably going to want to angle them in and toward the middle and definitely not directed toward where someone might be projecting out. You don't want to have some random singer pop out for no reason.

Use good judgement over everything I've said.

If you're on a desktop, something like the Audiophile 2496 will probably be fine--if you want/need professional level analog to digital conversion then you're going to want to go with a Lynx or an RME sound card.

The Audiophile retails at around 100 bucks, it's pretty good for the price.

The analog input is stereo RCA jacks so you'll need to convert from the mixer (which is likely TRS, though it might have RCA) to RCA.

Ask questions like the ones I started this post with and also like: What are the mixer output jacks? Do I know how to use this mixer? Familiarize yourself as soon as you can.

Cheers,

[Mia]

As far as getting the levels as hot as possible without clipping, yes and no. It's ok and recommended to leave a little bit of headroom. I don't know if maybe it's different with a whole choir, but oftentimes you'll find that during an actual performance, it can get louder at one or two points than it did during the soundcheck, when you told them to be loud.

Do pan the individual mics accordingly.. you probably already know that.

I would recommend leaving the recording going through the whole performance, and then normalizing the whole thing to peak level.. though this part isn't a huge deal. Whatever works. Just make sure you're not gonna miss music.

And when you think the performance is over.. wait some more anyway, before stopping the recording. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

[dannthr]

If it's a small auditorium and it's a live performance, then the loudest thing could be the clapping of the audience which you would never be able to sound check.

I agree, always leave room for everything. Extremes are for experts .

[cw4u]

You all had mentioned that the audience might raise the audio levels a bit, so should I tell the choir director to tell the audience to hold all applause? Or does the applause at the end of the song add an effect? Thanks.

[Mia]

Just leave some headroom. If you're using condenser mics, the level you record at really doesn't make THAT huge a difference, as far as I'm aware.

[dannthr]

In general, for classical recitals, it's good form if the audience holds applause between movements of the same work. Applause is normal between separate works.