Recording the Sacred Harp

I have seen numerous approaches to recording Sacred Harp sings.
These generally involve either hanging mikes above the singers or pointing
in from outside the square. Both approaches are audience oriented, as one
would use when recording a conventional choir. However, at a Sacred Harp sing
there is no audience. It is an entirely participatory event. If there could be
said to be an audience, it would have a single member, the leader.

Any singer of shape note music knows the place to be is the leader's spot.
The leader stands in the middle of a square composed of all the singers facing
in. The tenors are in front of her, basses to the right, trebles to the left
and altos behind. It is my goal to capture that experience, to reproduce the
leader's perspective to whatever degree possible.

People sing from the front of their heads, not the top or the back. The mikes
must be there, in front of the singers, and that means putting them right
inside the square.

Once we have decided to breach the square, we have several issues to face.
The mikes could hamper the leaders' movement or intimidate the front row
singers. Recordings could be flawed by leaders bumping into the mike stands.
In practice, these are all addressable. My early efforts used low stands in an
attempt to be unobtrusive. People tripped over them. I now use conventional
round-based stands, with the main stand run up to full height and a short boom
extending straight back down, to put the mike just above seated head height,
50"-55". The tall stand remains in the leader's peripheral vision and is
easily avoided. Occasionally someone will back into one, but not often. Shock
mounts keep those occasions and the random foot-stomper's stand kick from
ruining recordings. Leaders and front row singers alike tell me that the mikes
soon fade into the surroundings, and are not an impediment to the sing.

Sacred Harp sings are inherently 360° surroud events. Unfortunately, the
vast majority of playback systems are 2 channel stereo. A good degree of section
separation can still be achieved through thoughtful mike placement. I consider
the left channel to be tenor/treble and the right to be alto/bass. This pairs
each section with as different a range as possible.

Tenors are louder than trebles, and altos louder than basses, so I place the
mikes in front of the tenor end of the treble section and the alto end of the
bass section, typically a foot or two out from between the second and third
chairs. With experimentation and careful listening, a very good balance is
possible.

Does the need for omni mikes even need explaining? They typically have
a much wider and flatter frequency response than directional mikes, and it
doesn't vary according to distance. Close singers don't sound different from
distant singers, only louder. The pattern captures the singers, the leader and
the room. Omnis are it for this application.

This mike placement means that the few people sitting closest to the mikes
will have a somewhat larger impact on the recording. The omni mikes make this
much less of an issue than might be expected, but you will certainly notice if
someone tone deaf lands in one of the hot seats. The only time I've asked a
person to move was a tenor (hi, B) in the treble section, singing the treble
part an octave low directly into the mike. He was a great singer, and it
sounded good, but he made it difficult to hear the rest of the trebles. I also
knew him. In an established sing, the front rows tend to be occupied by
mainstays.

At this point, my recording setup has become very consistent. I use Earthworks
TC30k omni mikes, powered by an old Audio Envelope phantom supply, followed by
14dB inline pads, into a Tascam DA-P1 portable DAT recorder with it's 20 dB
pads engaged. Sings are loud. Left channel at 7, right at 7.5. The separate
phantom supply ensures that the inline pads don't starve my power hungry
mikes. The left channel mike is trebles and tenors. The right channel is
basses and altos. The bass mike is at armpit height and the treble mike is a
bit taller. I run the mike cables around the outside of the square.

4' long cable walkovers from an office supply store are ideal for getting the
cables up the aisle to the mikes. Stay out from under the chairs. A 300 pound
singer can do serious damage to a cable with the leg of a folding chair. When
I mentioned using conventional round-based stands, I lied. Ulimate Support
makes stands with a notched round base. The end of a walkover goes into the
notch very tidily.

Electric fans are evil. Singers can get very hot, yes, but they can use
handheld paper fans. These make no noise and lend a pleasant visual element to
the sing. Our weekly sing keeps a bundle of folded paper fans in the bag with
the loaner books. As a compromise, the basic box fan makes much less noise
when set at medium speed while moving nearly as much air as the high setting.
Turning all fans off during the memorial lesson makes it easier for everyone
to hear.

If you're recording to DAT, preformat the tapes. There is typically only 10
seconds between songs. You need to be able to change quickly. Change tapes
when they get within five minutes of the end. None of the songs runs five minutes.

Have a good sing.

Dan Richardson -10/01