Day 3... the morning after.

Too pooped to write anything last night, but just let me say, what a day! It went beautifully. I feel like each day is getting better and better. The new developement of the day was that we found a GORGEOUS harpsichord to use for some of the solo cantata movements to be recorded Thursday and Friday. You see, no matter how much pre-production planning we do, there are still last minute miracles that need to be performed...

For those of you who've never experienced a recording session, let me just say, it's like any "production", ten thousand things to consider, remember, arrange, provide for, pay for, hope for... and in the end you have to come together in an incredible short amount of time, rehearse, and then really make music. We are so lucky to have such fantastic players with us on this adventure.

We are recording in St. Stephen's Church in Belvedere where there is no ambient noise, a good accoustic, and room for a recording booth set up not far from the sanctuary. We musicians are all in a sort of eliptical shape with the singers facing the orchestra. The orchestra is a string quartet, with a fifth instrument, a violone, or double bass type instrument on the bottom, and a portatif (small portable) organ and harpsichord (for the cantatas, not the Pergolesi) towards the middle. Mics are set up in the center of the group with individual mics for singers, organ, and the bass instruments, general mics for the whole orchestra, and two mics set up half way back on 10'-15' stands in the sanctuary to get more of the room accoustic for post production mixing. There are tangles of cords all over the floor for extension chords, stand lights and mics, and one sort of "umbilical chord" that takes all of the recorded information out of the sanctuary, through the kitchen and into the founders room where Steve, our producer, and Preston, our engineer, sit at two tables, surrounded by speakers, headphones, and a thousand more chords running here and there to little boxes and gizmos with blinking lites, all running into Preston's laptop where all of the recording information eventually ends up in digital form. No tapes to change anymore, no siree... we're firmly into the digital age now.

The actual recording is an amazing process. With each movement we begin by going for a full "master" take. This takes anywhere from 3 to 5 full takes in between which Steve talks to us over a speaker that sits in the middle of the circle. We joke that it's sort of like God chiming in to tell us how we did, how it sounds, what needs fixing, and what it needs in terms of musical intention or tuning or phrasing. His ears are amazing, we can't get away with anything! He pushes hard and we're exhausted at the end but glad because that's want we want in the end, our best. Then the instrumentalists fix and rehearse the little things that need attention, the singers do the same as well as try to clear any frogs that have decided to sit on our vocal chords, and we go for another take. Once we have a master take then Steve takes us back to "cover" sections that are not up to par in the master take. He somehow keeps track of it all and puts the finished product together during post production mixing and editing.

That's kind of how it goes, each day, each session, each take, piece by piece we build the recording, trying to get it everything in it's place and time, all while keeping the magic in the music, the energy, the meaning of the text, all of it.

It's hard to imagine I could be happier than I am right now.

xoxo,

Chris