Recording - mixed reaction
Sandra U. has kindly sent through a drastically squashed down mp3 of my piece, and I've put it onto Emma's iPod for listening. The quality of the recording is not very promising, but it hasn't had the Rod Reynolds treatment yet.
As for the performance? I'm very happy with some of it, and very disappointed with other bits.
The good: as lynsis put it, the instrumentalists "were on fire". Karl, Nick, and Michael did a superb job. The sopranos and altos sound very good despite the punishing lines that they had to cope with. As I said before, Sarah's solo sounded a bit nervous and the recording confirms this, but all the notes are there.
The bad: With the closeness of the mikes, there is no sense of a blend of the female voices, and individual voices stick out from time to time. There is some poor intonation in some of the exposed solo choir lines, particularly at the start of phrases. The recording is top heavy, but this is actually my intention in part.
The ugly: A pity someone didn't simply turn off the microphone pointing at the tenors. Enough said.
As for the performance? I'm very happy with some of it, and very disappointed with other bits.
The good: as lynsis put it, the instrumentalists "were on fire". Karl, Nick, and Michael did a superb job. The sopranos and altos sound very good despite the punishing lines that they had to cope with. As I said before, Sarah's solo sounded a bit nervous and the recording confirms this, but all the notes are there.
The bad: With the closeness of the mikes, there is no sense of a blend of the female voices, and individual voices stick out from time to time. There is some poor intonation in some of the exposed solo choir lines, particularly at the start of phrases. The recording is top heavy, but this is actually my intention in part.
The ugly: A pity someone didn't simply turn off the microphone pointing at the tenors. Enough said.