A'capella version of Imogen Heap's Hide & Seek

[AEL89]

Here's probably the most un-metal thing ever posted on this forum... I had the pleasure of recording an album for the St. George's Chapel (Windsor Castle) Choir. They did a cool rendition of Hide and Seek, arranged by the bass singer.

This just has a Briscati M7 impulse, some de-essing and some very gentle bus compression. I threw a limiter on just to kill all the lovely dynamics too

I start the mix next week so I'll post it up when its finished.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1041607/Q6 - HS.mp3

 

[RichMinerva]

the whole song is an acapella :|

 

[AEL89]

You mean the original is a'capella..?

A cappella (Italian for From the chapel/choir) music is group vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way

The original has vocoder and autotuning effects (maybe some synth?), this is just voice

 

[Plankis]

Sounds great already! How many singers in the choir?

 

[AEL89]

Sounds great already! How many singers in the choir?

Cheers! 6 - 2 altos, a tenor, 2 baritone and a bass. 1 of the altos is regarded by the rest of the group as the "2nd best in the world that they know of". Took 2 days to track 10 songs If only I could work with a drummer that good :Smokedev:

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Sounds awesome!!

About the 10 tracks in 2 days, I've worked with a drummer that NAILED 10 tracks in 2 days

 

[AEL89]

Sounds awesome!!

About the 10 tracks in 2 days, I've worked with a drummer that NAILED 10 tracks in 2 days

Cheers dude. Still loads of work to do yet and I'm worried about mastering... I'm tempted to just use some gentle limiting (not that there is such thing) to try and preserve the dynamics as much as possible.

I've done 4 tracks in about 5 hours but it was a 4 track EP!

 

[aseymer]

What Mic's, and Mic Technique did you use for this?...... Sounds good

 

[AEL89]

km184s in ORTF and an SM81 through the middle... kind of like a decca tree but then again not at all like one :Spin: Also used a spaced pair of ribbons.

I updated the original post... better reverb, a little more dynamic control, more de-essing and boosted some lows.

 

[EOC]

Beautiful! i love choral music! who is the arranger?
It sounds very similar to eric whitacre stuff.
Great work!

 

[AEL89]

Cheers mate. The bass singer arranged it - very talented dude he is. I'm hoping to hook up more work with him on some other projects. Their version of the British National Anthem is absolutely amazing too - they made the most dull song quite moving and a little dark and brooding.

Slightly off-topic: one thing I love about working with real pros is they totally appreciate what we as engineers and producers do - they were honestly more impressed with what I did than I was of them!

...And they paid on time

 

[AEL89]

I'd also like to add that this was recorded in my house!

 

[GarethSE]

Absolutely spine chilling, beautiful.

 

[Revson]

Holy shit. I think I have something in my eye.

 

[AEL89]

Absolutely spine chilling, beautiful.

Holy shit. I think I have something in my eye.

Gays.

Just joking - when I was sitting in the control room on my own... I'd literally just closed my eyes and let the epicness wash over me, its really moving stuff. I only posted this track as its the most known. There were more emotive tracks than this.

 

[MetalMiller]

Sorry for the necrobump... I really love this stuff. Any news, where can i find more non christmas stuff

 

[schismatic]

Cracking stuff mate, beautifully warm, balanced and dynamic, and what a privilege to be able to track in that environment as well.