What is the best way to record congregational singing?

[markkoller]

I want to record our congregation singing Psalms. What is the best and most inexpensive way to get a good recording of a large group of people singing? Right now I am using Audacity on my laptop but the next step I think is to get a microphone to record with. Any thoughts.

Also, if you have recordings of your church or family singing Psalms I would be interested in posting them at www.exclusivepsalmody.com . My goal is to have a recording of congregational singing for every Psalm in some of the more popular Psalters (1650, Book of Psalms for Singing, etc.) for use in family worship.

It is difficult for many people to sing in family worship without a little help. I want to make the process easier to encourage the use of the Psalms in family worship. Any ideas on this would be appreciated.

Also, any volunteers to record Psalm singing at your church would be wonderful! I really need some help here from the larger EP world on this project.

 

[TaylorOtwell]

Probably a condenser microphone with an omni-directional pattern. It will require a pre-amp to power it. Check out the equipment by "Studio Projects". I think their C3 mic has an omni-directional pattern. They also sell a pre-amp. They make decent stuff at an affordable price.

If you have any questions, just shoot me a PM. I used to own thousands of dollars worth of recording equipment.

 

[Michael]

To answer the question in the title of your post, you will need the following...

2 or more microphones
1 power amp
1 compressor
1 mixer
1 CD recorder
cables

The above equipment will cost between $1000-$1200 new, and about half that used.

If that is too steep financially, you can forgo the compressor and get the power amp and mixer in one unit similar to this.

Otherwise, if you want to record to your computer and then burn cds from there, you should at least get some half-way decent software. Using software like Record with something like a POD interface can produce some pretty impressive results. You just need a computer and a mic.

 

[markkoller]

Wow, that is considerably more complicated than I thought it would be. I will look some more into this.

The Record program costs $249.00! I have a very low budget. What can I get for $2.49?

 

[markkoller]

Thank you all for the information. I have some homework to do I guess....

 

[TexanRose]

Rev. Koller, thanks so much for getting that site started. I really appreciate your goal to have recordings of all of the psalms. I've often thought and said that we ought to have them all available.

We have been having regular psalm singings here and recording the singing with a little recorder that was really designed for recording speech (i.e. sermons), and is not really adequate for recording singing. I actually found this thread as I was doing a search for "recording singing" as I had the same question as you, what equipment would be needed to do proper recordings.

I am looking forward to hearing any recordings that you all are able to produce. We may also have recordings to share in the future. And I hope that other people will step up and offer recordings as well.

 

[TheElk]

Buy this: Buy Lexicon Alpha USB Audio Interface | Audio Interfaces | Musician's Friend

or this: Buy Lexicon Omega Desktop Recording Studio | Audio Interfaces | Musician's Friend

This uses USB to hook to the computer and it comes with Cubase LE which will allow you to record up to 4 channels. Very good mixing program. It has a little bit of a learning curve though.

Buy one of these mics: Buy MXL MXL 990 Condenser Microphone with Shockmount | Condenser Microphones | Musician's Friend

For stereo sound buy this: Buy Nady CYM-2 Condenser Mic Kit | Percussion Microphones | Condenser Microphones | Musician's Friend

I would stay away from dynamic microphones because of the pre-amp power needed. Especially with how cheap and clean condenser mics record.

 

[littlepeople]

if you don't already have a microphone, get something like this: Blue Microphones Snowball | Sweetwater.com This will give you the omni option (although I would use cardioid if your congregation is singing from the pews) there are a lot of options regarding gear so just remember K.I.S.S. principle.

continue using audacity, there are many other free options, but that'll be fine for what you're tracking. Good gear and software won't benefit you one bit without some years of experience in how to use it properly, so don't spend a penny (except for the mic). I know some studio and live sound engineers that are sometimes in the Dallas area. I'll see if any of them can spare a condenser mic to loan you.

 

[TexanRose]

if you don't already have a microphone, get something like this: Blue Microphones Snowball | Sweetwater.com This will give you the omni option (although I would use cardioid if your congregation is singing from the pews) there are a lot of options regarding gear so just remember K.I.S.S. principle.

continue using audacity, there are many other free options, but that'll be fine for what you're tracking. Good gear and software won't benefit you one bit without some years of experience in how to use it properly, so don't spend a penny (except for the mic). I know some studio and live sound engineers that are sometimes in the Dallas area. I'll see if any of them can spare a condenser mic to loan you.

Okay, let's say I wanted to try what you've suggested, just the mic and computer with Audacity. What kind of computer specs would be necessary for this? I need to upgrade my computer anyway, and would like to have sufficient memory, a good sound card, etc. whatever would be necessary to allow for using it to record singing.

 

[markkoller]

Rev. Koller, thanks so much for getting that site started. I really appreciate your goal to have recordings of all of the psalms. I've often thought and said that we ought to have them all available.

We have been having regular psalm singings here and recording the singing with a little recorder that was really designed for recording speech (i.e. sermons), and is not really adequate for recording singing. I actually found this thread as I was doing a search for "recording singing" as I had the same question as you, what equipment would be needed to do proper recordings.

I am looking forward to hearing any recordings that you all are able to produce. We may also have recordings to share in the future. And I hope that other people will step up and offer recordings as well.

Sharon, Any recordings you have would be a wonderful addition! I am looking foward to installing an upgrade to the website so that I can add these recordings in the future. Right now I have to wait until I get the funds to upgrade. I think our efforts will be helpful to those who might need a little help in singing the Psalms in family worship. Many families are not that musically inclined.