[Mike Rivers]

Keith. wrote:

I think that the volume of an Opera voice plus piano is going to bring out
any negative living room acoustics and I really doubt that the singer would
feel comfortable singing at the required volume in the closed in intimacy of
a living room.
An Opera audition CD should simulate as close as possible the volume and
acoustically reflective conditions of an Opera theatre. So it looks like the
Church is a close to those conditions as you will get.

This discussion is getting further and further away from supposed
reality (as usual). Can we hear more from the original poster?

Has the singer (or ANY opera singer) ever sung in your living room with
your piano?
Are you an opera fan?
Did you get into this because you're a friend with a piano and some
recording equipment?
What's riding on the audition recording?

I know that opera singers can be very loud. I also know that rock
singers can be just as loud, and people have recorded then more-or-less
succesfully in poor rooms by using a mic that can take the acoustic
level, placing it close enough so that there isn't a lot of room sound
getting in, setting the preamp gain (maybe using an external pad if
necessary) so it won't clip, and then adding ambience artificially. If
the room is really small and the singer really loud, there may be a
problem witl the singer's room sound getting into the piano mics enough
to sound bad, but there may be a way to control that.

While there may be some advantages to recording in the church - the
singer might like what her vioice sounds to her while she's singing, and
things won't be so cramped (the electronic piano could be recorded
direct just in case) - depending on what's being sung, a church may be
entirely the wrong acoustical environment. And since gear will need to
be brought in for the church recording, there's always room for Murphy's
Lawyer to show up with a motion to exclude the evidence.



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