Sound Engineering Help

[whomper]

<<<I just may see if the church will let me record there. Thanks!>>>

Excellent. Even the smaller churches can sound very good because they are all, at their base, performance spaces. It's probably the one time when sensing the walls is a good thing.

Koz

maybe
maybe not

worth a try but no guarantee of good sound

an architecture book with title something like
solving the fountainheadache
tells of many tales
where architects
built beautiful buildings
with horrible sound and
churches being a prime example of this tunnel vision

then the arches said after the defect was pointed out that
if you wanted good sound you should have told me up front

goes to show that architects are more worried about their portfolio and winning contests and awards than making functional buildings

not sure which is worse
the church examples of pretty architecture with horrible sound
and costs to remediate on the order of the original building
or that highrise insurance building in boston where the windows kept
falling out onto the street

[kozikowski]

<<<maybe
maybe not>>>

Remember we're comparing this to recording in a dining room or bare-walled third bedroom. You can position the mic and place the singers so it's clear they're recording in a large room or theater (which they are) and yet it doesn't take over.

It's the hardware version of GVerb, the downside being the effect is baked in.

Koz

[whomper]

<<<maybe
maybe not>>>

Remember we're comparing this to recording in a dining room or bare-walled third bedroom. You can position the mic and place the singers so it's clear they're recording in a large room or theater (which they are) and yet it doesn't take over.

It's the hardware version of GVerb, the downside being the effect is baked in.

Koz

true
a close miked cardiod can help a lot
and the big room delays the echos
and makes them lower in volume

[steve]

I thought "Magic Sing" only made karaoke mics?

I would expect, for the purposes of recording, a proper recording microphone would outperform a karaoke microphone by a very large margin.
(there are many proper recording microphones available in the same price range as those karaoke mics).

So, basically, the "magic" is really in a good recording environment, rather than in post-production.

If you can get a good "raw" (unprocessed) recording, not only does it save a lot of time in post production but the finished result is also likely to be much better. It is possible to compensate for poor recording and sometimes make considerable improvements, but it is very much better if you don't need to.

A good recording environment is one of the key issues for making good recordings. Microphone placement is another.
There is a very long topic that discusses these issues here: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=22109