We were contracted in to produce a concert recording and CD for the Star Chorale Choir and Orchestra performing Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor at the James Tatoulis Auditorium in Methodist Ladies’ College. The chance to attend rehearsal a week before the concert was an opportunity to meet the choir, check the acoustics of the auditorium and map out microphone placement. The concert was directed by Jane Elton Brown and featured soloists Jane O’Toole, Kerrie Bolton, Roy Best and Gary Rowley.
Our recording setup for the concert was 4 DPA 4023 compact mics (which pickup a highly transparent sound – highly recommended), 2 DPA 4060s (you can see them in this picture pushed 3 metres up within either side of the choir) and 4 Neumann U89s for the orchestra and soloists. The microphones were run into the Nagra VI (I love this recorder) alongside a 4 channel GML preamp and interface combo, which we setup as our studio in a room on stage left. With sound engineer James Howard monitoring the recording I slipped up to the bio box which is a great vantage point to take photos and shot a number which were later handy for the final CD inlays and the Star Chorale website. Fantastic performance from both the Choir and Orchestra, great to see all the seats full and audience really enjoying themselves.
[audio:http://www.truthrecordings.com/wp-content/audio/starchorale.mp3]