Recording group vocals

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drock
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Recording group vocals

Post by drock » Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:53 pm

Hey there! So I'm such a newb when it comes to this stuff but I had a question which probably seems simple to most on here..

I'm planning on recording a bunch of group vocals (think small choir..maybe 10-15) in a small-ish room with just one mic into one track but how do I do the whole monitor thing for the group? How do each of them hear the song while they sing? They'd all need separate headphones. I'm sure this would require a specific type of hardware and so far I just have the Presonus 1818VSL.

Has anyone else done this with Auria?
Thanks so much for all the help on this (and every other post too)!

mrufino1
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Re: Recording group vocals

Post by mrufino1 » Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:26 pm

What kind of mic? Just play it back through a speaker and put the speaker in the dead spot of the mic. Or just let the speaker bleed, lots of great recordings with speaker monitor bleed, if it's the same song it will be fine in the mix.

You could also wire the speakers out of phase so they cancel out on the recording, or just give section leaders the headphones. If you can distribute 15 headphones it's not a problem, but that sounds like asking for 15 opinions on the monitor mix to me. ;-)

But in all seriousness, a pair of floor wedges in front of them, or a speaker somewhere should be fine, keep the volume reasonable and you'll be ok.

I recorded 5 singers doing backgrounds recently, 3 had phones, 2 shared one pair, and they were in a circle around an omni mic. It worked out very well.

drock
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Re: Recording group vocals

Post by drock » Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:45 pm

Hey thanks for the input, mrufino1. I plan to use an omni mic as well. I'm curious though, when you did your background vocalist session, what hardware did you use to get 4 seperate headphones going? I only have one headphone out of my 1818 so I know I'm missing some important piece of hardware since I want to do it similar to what you had...even if a bunch of people are sharing. I'm just curious for future instances too...thanks!

Fitz
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Re: Recording group vocals

Post by Fitz » Wed Sep 24, 2014 2:28 am

This is in the UK -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-MixIt-Ro ... +splitters
Very cheap, not sure of the quality though

dominicperry
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Re: Recording group vocals

Post by dominicperry » Wed Sep 24, 2014 12:52 pm


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martygras
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Re: Recording group vocals

Post by martygras » Wed Sep 24, 2014 2:29 pm

I've helped out on 2 recordings where the choir had a conductor or a coach of sorts. They wore the headphones to keep the tempo.
One choir, (about 30 people) was really tight. Got it all in 2 passes. The other group, (6 people) took hours to get it right.
YMMV

If your song was recorded to a metronome, you might be able to get away with recording the track in a new song, and copy it into the main song later.
Marty Schulte [I'm a drummer. So, there's that.]
iPad AIR(128), Akai EIE, Akai EWI USB, illudium q-36 explosive space modulator
Head First Audio (live sound for Southern Oregon, USA)

mrufino1
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Re: Recording group vocals

Post by mrufino1 » Wed Sep 24, 2014 2:59 pm

drock wrote:Hey thanks for the input, mrufino1. I plan to use an omni mic as well. I'm curious though, when you did your background vocalist session, what hardware did you use to get 4 seperate headphones going? I only have one headphone out of my 1818 so I know I'm missing some important piece of hardware since I want to do it similar to what you had...even if a bunch of people are sharing. I'm just curious for future instances too...thanks!
We were using a focusrite interface with a Mac, plugged the outputs into an oz audio headphone matrix mixer that I have and each headphone output of the mixer ( there are 6) can mix between 4 mono channels and one stereo. In the Bv session case though, they all had the same mix. A headphone amp, such as that presonus that's around $100, a behringer, or that $50 rolls will give you 4 independent headphone outs with volume controls, all sharing the same mix. You can make that mix from your 1818 by either just using the master ours or by sending an aux mix from auria out another set of outputs into the headphone amp.

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