The Recording Story
This page will try hard to be interesting or at least mildly diverting. The short version is: during his career, Michael Roy has always had a semi-pro recording studio, and before the dawn of digital recording, he had only a four-track reel-to-reel Teac A-3440 tape deck to accomplish his early overdubbing tricks. This means: with some projects requiring up to 12 total passes, MR had to "bounce" his tracks between two synchronized decks to build up that many overdubs. Of course, when any bounce was in play, it was prudent to mine the opportunity to add content, therefore MR mixed in a live mic with each bounce.
His in-the-field recordings were done on a Sony PMD 360 professional cassette recorder, and the cassettes were eventually mixed down to reel-to-reel decks. Many of the early performances were captured by the Sony.
His mastering deck was a Revox A-77, a decent piece of equipment for the day (and barely affordable!). It not only achieved the master copy of a recording in stereo, but was the "bounce" deck for compiling multiple overdubs.
The modus operandi was to fill up the Teac's 4 tracks and then bounce it to the Revox, securing an initial two-track stereo mix. Since a live mic was mixed in on the bounce, the count on the Revox at this point was at 5 passes. This was thrown back into the Teac on two of the four tracks in order to preserve the stereo spectrum. With a live pass thrown in on this bounce, the total passes on the Teac are now 6. Often, the guitar was saved for this pass to keep its sound bright, since with every bounce, the tape hiss grows, and the highs become a little duller.
The remaining two tracks are filled now, usually with more vocals, and we are now at eight separate performances into the recording. A final mixdown into the two-track Revox is made, and if necessary (and it seemed it always was) a last live mic was added to the mix-down for a total of 9 tracks, all in a stereo mix. If this whole process began with a mixdown from the in-the-field cassette deck, add one more pass (in stereo) for a total of ten. For those who are counting, this means that the original content on the cassette deck ends up as fifth-generation tape. With that convoluted process, it's astounding that anything was preserved from that era, or that it was listenable..
Digital recording changed everything. In 2000, MR acquired his first 16-track digital recorder, and hence, everything recorded from Immanuel on was digital content that never saw an inch of magnetic tape. The Teac, Revox and Sony Cassette decks still function, but only in the process of transferring all of that taped content over to digital form. They no longer serve to initiate recordings, but all have hallowed places on the shelf for their decades of faithful service. Below, see the three main recorders. Use your imagination for all the mics, mixers, amps, noise-reduction units, reverb chambers, equalizers, toaster ovens (for snacks) and so on.
Old Soldier's Home
Sony PMD 360: This old warhorse has been going since
the early '70's. With Dolby noise-reduction, and battery capability, it was a good in-the-field recorder for the day. It often acted as a backup recorder for concerts when a reel-to-reel was the main device.
Teac A-3340: Before 2000, all of the overdubbing was accomplished on this 4-track machine. Even in this digital age, it still must serve to transfer existing analog 4-track tapes into the computer. After 40 + years, it still works fine.
Revox A-77: This mastering deck cut a hot track in its day, making the multiple overdubs sustainable. Both the Revox and Teac had high tape speed capability of 15 ips. The Revox also had a fine-tuning speed adjustment feature to speed up or slow down the tape transport -10% to + 15%.
Recording the Concerts and The Sound Enhancement System
It is no mystery why the concerts (with a few regrettable exceptions) are comprehensibly recorded: the mic count was up to 20 microphones, and this was for a performance group of between 17 to 23. The first two mics were mounted in the middle of the auditorium (sanctuary), and were panned L and R. The next two (also panned in stereo) were placed very close to the chorale, at a spread of about 20 feet. Sometimes a third middle channel mic was placed in the center, just feet from the chorale. Instrumentally, the piano, string bass, banjo, percussion set, and guitar were mic-ed in the Bluegrass concerts. In the ancient concerts, the instrumental mics were on the consort, portative organ, and the harpsichord. The section leader/soloists each had a mic, and this was a total of about 8 vocal mics. Sometimes a separate mic was placed on the amp for the plugged-in acoustic guitar.
The vocal mics were channeled through the main mixer and amp and were all in mono, in that they served the dual purpose of sound enhancement for the audience. It is not effective to attempt to dial a stereo spectrum with close vocal mics in a 20-voiced chorale. Thus, the entire stereo spectrum is achieved from the "acoustic" mics in front of the chorale: the four or five that were not part of the sound enhancement array, but were channeled directly into the 16-track digital recorder with their spectrums preserved.
Before about 2000, the concerts were recorded on a 4-track tape deck (see above), with two tracks receiving the main mixer/amp mic array, and two preserving the stereo spectrum from the acoustic mics stationed closely in front of the performers.
Even in pure choral concerts and oratorio presentations, semi-close mics were placed on the section leaders, including Michael Roy, who simultaneously sang the bass line as he conducted the chorale. MR always had a mic facing him as he faced the chorale. In the other concerts, he also had a mic as he faced the audience, in that this was the standard performance position for this type of concert: all including the director facing forward.
The main speaker system consisted of two 250 lb. Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater speakers. These were speakers (now vintage) that came out of the '70's with MR and Jan, but they continued to be effective in these big concert for 40 years. To these two massive speakers, were added two state-of-the-art speakers with more mid and high frequencies in play, in that the giant "Voices" had tremendous bass response. Several monitor speakers were onstage facing the chorale.
If the Choral Conductor is Also a Male Singer:
MR had one more sound trick up his sleeve with respect to his serving as as his own bass section leader: he set up a dedicated monitor speaker directly in front of his basses with his voice most prominent, and used this special system to further lead and influence the basses and baritones. He also broke with long-held choral tradition that exiled basses to the back row of the risers. His bass section was positioned in the center front of the choir just two feet in front of his podium. He centered the basses shoulder-to-shoulder very closely around him and the tenors were just behind. The sopranos and altos were positioned on either side of this tight knot of men, and behind the men on the back row of the risers. In this way, MR could lead the entire male contingent in men's unisons and specifically lead the basses in 4-part choral. In this configuration, MR and all the male singers were always in close communication, both in the imparting of choral direction, and in singing together as he was included in the men's section.
Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater
Digital 16-track recorder mixers - amp