Topic: Recording Opera

[canbelto]

I have some general questions that I hope someone will be kind enough to give me the benefit of their experience.  I'm somewhat new at this and my results have been hit or miss.  Occasionally I set the gain too high and got distortion.  I've been using the AGC on my Sony rh-910 and now I have a Zoom 2.  I've used the AGC on the MD as I don't want to fiddle with the volume during a performance and draw unnecessary attention to myself.  I'm using a Church Audio (Ebay) pre-amp (with their mics) at the lowest gain setting and set the mic sensitivity to low.  Would I do the comparable same with the Zoom 2?  If I ran the preamp thru the line-in would I need to make different adjustments?  I'm sure these questions have been asked and answered before but I really appreciate the knowledge and expertise on this board.  Any other tips on recording opera would be most welcome.  Thanks much, Jim

[boojum]

Two rules:

      1)    Do not use AGC.
      2)    Do not use AGC.

Set you levels low.  You can always raise them but digital clipping is pretty hard to fix.

If you have a pre-amp it may be better than the one built in to the Zoom.  If it is, use it and go through line-in.  You can always raise those levels in your post recording editing.  You will have to figure out your levels ahead of time.  Experiment.

Let me know if you are even able to get a recording at the NY Met.  I understand tapers who are caught there are boiled in oil.   

[javertim]

I tape a lot of musical theatre, but I've never taped opera (even though I am an avid opera fan).  With my CMC-2s fed into a mini 12-volt battery box, and that fed into the line-in of my RH910 (which I used to own), I found that a manual recording level of about 23-25 worked best.  Never use the AGC, as Boojum said -- especially with classical music where the dynamics are so extreme.  If you really want to, you can always perform dynamic compression on the computer, but even there I would suggest that you use it very sparingly (I myself usually do enveloping if need be).

I did notice that when I was using mics like the low-end SP binaurals (SP-BMC-3?) I had to use a higher recording level -- Sometimes all the way up to 30/30, even though the rest of my setup was exactly the same as that noted above.  I guess the CMC-2s just produce a better signal.  But I would definitely suggest using a battery box and going to the line-in of the RH910.  It gives you a much more noise-free recording than using the mic-in jack ... Also, it's much less easy to overload the line-in.  The Sony MD mic-in preamps, for all their sonic glory, are VERY easy to overload.

I'm certainly no expert, but I hope this was able to help you out some.



ETA: I would assume that keeping the Church Audio Preamp on its lowest setting would equate somewhat to using a battery box ... Does that sound right ye old wise tapers?

[canbelto]

Thank you both for your help.  Much appreciated.