RECORDING TIPS - IN STUDIOS
Aspects Opera Singers Should Consider When Choosing a Recording Studio
By Jeremy Gerard, Engineer, Gurari Studios
Reprinted with permission of the author
Preliminary Questions
1. How much experience does the engineer have recording opera singers? (Having recorded classical instrumental music and/or pop/jazz vocals is not enough)
2. Does the engineer read music? (Crucial for editing).
3. Does the engineer seem personable and patient? (You want an engineer who is going to create a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere to work in).
4. Is the engineer a musician? (Not always necessary; some of the best audio engineers in the business are not musicians, but it certainly helps).
Optimal Characteristics of a Live Room
What is the size of the room? (Should be at least 200 square feet).
* How is the room tuned?
* Are there wood floors? No live room should contain wall-to-wall carpet.
* Is there an over abundance of sound absorption material on the walls or are
they using primarily sound diffusers? Sound absorption will tend to soak up
certain frequencies while diffusers tend to break up sound waves and distribute
the acoustical energy evenly throughout the room. In a well-tuned room there is
the right amount of both absorption and diffusion.
* Ask to sing in the room. How does it feel? It should be comfortable, not too
live but not too dead and not restricting. Under no circumstances should you
sing in a totally dead environment; you run the risk of pushing.
* Under no circumstances should an opera singer sing in an isolation booth. They
are totally dead and restricting.
* If the room is too live it will tend to accentuate the highs and your voice
may end up sounding brighter than it actually is.
* Room acoustics are a very tricky business ---a mixture of science and
experimentation. How the human ear perceives sound quality can greatly vary from
what the microphones actually pick up. Ultimately the room should be comfortable
to sing in and sound good going to tape.
Equipment
1. What kind of microphones does the studio use? Microphones are perhaps the most important link in the equipment chain. I use only Neumann Microphones (pretty much industry standard). I have found that they deliver the most even and consistent sound with opera singers and classical music. Neumann makes many large diaphragm mics. I particularly like the TLM 103 and the U-87 for opera singers. I tend to stay away from tube mics because the sound pressure level emitted from your mouth can be so great (especially with big voices) that you can cause the tube to go micro phonic or distort. I love Neumann's KM-184's for piano and many instruments.
2. Is the studio digital or analogue, or a combination of both? Most studios today are digital and there are basically two kinds, tape and hard disk. Either one is fine, but you should find out at what sample rate and bit depth the studio records. The higher the sample rate and bit depth, the better. Ultimately everything gets dithered down to 44.1/16 bit, but I have noticed huge differences between recording at 16 bit and 24 bit. Voices are definitely warmer and more accurately reproduced at higher bit depths.
3. Is the studio capable of performing sample accurate editing? Ask to hear examples. Listen for: ticks or clicks at the edit points. Does it sound like an edit? Does the inserted piece match in volume, tempi, color, etc.? If so, you have a bad edit and a poor engineer. Many times I have to spend time finding the right place to insert the edit. It is not always where you want it to be.
4. Another important piece of equipment in the chain are the pre-amps. There are basically three kinds: solid state, tube and those that utilize both solid state and tubes. They provide the gain (amplification) for the microphones and have a lot do with the color of the sound. I particularly like using tube pre-amps for opera singers because they tend to "warm-up" the sound. One has to be very careful when using tube pre-amps because with large voices or voices that emit a high SPL (sound pressure level), the tubes can distort. I highly recommend Summit, Neve, Tube-Tech, Manley and Avalon.
5. The studio should be a multi-track studio. This means that the piano or other accompaniment is on a separate track from the voice so the balance can be set later in "mix down".
6. There is other equipment to consider such as the DAW (digital audio work station and the kind of platform being used- Pro-tools, Sound Forge, self contained workstation, etc.), Compressors, EQ's, De-essers, and Digital Reverb Units. I have tried to point the most important pieces to consider in the equipment chain.
The Recording Process
The recording process consists of recording, editing, mixing and mastering. These are all fairly self-explanatory, except mastering. In the mastering process track indexes are placed. In addition, level matching and normalizing from one song to the next are made consistent. Any tonal shaping that is needed may also be done in this process. Mastering piano and voice projects is fairly simple. Make sure the engineer does not normalize the song so hot that it distorts at dramatic moments. In major projects, like singing with orchestra, mastering can make or break the recording.
Recording Techniques
There are as many recording techniques as there are engineers. For your purposes there are essentially two kinds with many permutations: close miking of each of the instruments or using a stereo pair placed about half the distance of the width of the performing area. I like using the close miking technique because it lends itself to a fuller, richer sound than the stereo pair. Many singers are weary of having a mic so close to them because it picks up every nuance. The mic should never be as close as it would for a pop/jazz singer. There is no fixed distance the mic should be placed from an opera singer's mouth; it depends on the size and quality of the voice. Sometimes it is nice to use both the close miking and stereo pair, the stereo pair being used to capture primarily the room sound or natural reverb of the room. The stereo pair technique is appropriate when used on location in churches, concert halls, etc.
What To Listen For In Recordings
1. I cannot stress enough for you listen to sample recordings from the studio where you are interested in recording. If they don't have any samples of opera singers and piano, run. Ask to hear your fach and maybe samples that are not of your fach.
2. When listening to the recording really pay attention to the sound quality of the voice. Don't listen functionally (forget about how good or bad the singer is), and do listen sonically. Does the voice sound too bright or too dull? The voice should sound full, not thin like on AM radio. Really listen to high notes because this is where the most problems occur from an engineering standpoint. Is there distortion on the high notes, are the high notes too compressed (i.e. too squashed sounding?) Is there enough dynamic range? If they are too compressed, big dramatic high note moments won't be dramatic. If they are not compressed enough, do the high notes pop out? There must be the right amount of compression used and this is where experience plays a major role in recording opera singers.
3. Does the reverb sound natural? Is there too much or not enough reverb? I loathe an overabundance of bright unnatural sounding reverb.
4. How is the balance? Is the accompaniment overpowering the voice?
5. Are there ticks and clicks in the recording? This is a sign of bad edits or an improperly set-up or malfunctioning digital workstation.
Miscellaneous
1. Always get a CD or DAT master. Cassettes are noisy and should only be used when a company or competition strictly requires them. Even then I ask my clients to call and ask if a CD can be substituted or if they can send both.
2. Remember to always be respectful and courteous to the engineer. They are usually on your side and want you to sound your best. If you disagree with the sound, tell them nicely and work with them, clearly defining the sound you are after. Try and familiarize yourself with some audio terminology.
3. Make a test recording with your coach in order to get used to hearing your own voice. I get lots of clients who have never heard their voice on tape before and are shocked the first time they hear themselves.
© 2001 Jeremy Gerard. All rights reserved.
VocalImages
An online magazine by and for singers. The link below is to an article on making commercial CDs and demo recordings: