Getting Started: The Basics of House of Worship Recording Congregations everywhere these days are going on record. Houses of worship are capturing everything from CDs of their choir recorded in professional studios to live recordings of the praise band in the church, to cassette tapes of the Sunday morning sermon. Some use the recordings to raise money. For some it's a witnessing tool. Some technically advanced churches offer streaming recordings of services on their web site. And, of course, sending recordings of services to members who are ill or on extended absence at home has always been an important way to keep the community together.
	This issue of SHURE NOTES features Getting Started: The Basics of Worship Recording, the first in a series of articles about House of Worship recording. Future issues will cover topics such as Using the Studio: Tips for Professional Recording, Recording the Choir, Tape/CD Duplication, and more. If your congregation is new to recording and you're wondering how to get started, SHURE NOTES is here to provide some answers. Obviously, audio recording is a huge topic -and huge amounts of money can be spent quickly on purchasing the latest gear. If you're working with a congregation that wants to economically build a recording ministry that can grow more sophisticated over time, this article is for you. So, like the title says, let's get started with some of the basics.
	The Equipment... Anyone can take a boom box with a built-in microphone, put it next to the pulpit and hit the "record"button, but we're assuming you're after a higher quality sound. We're also assuming that your church already has at least a basic audio system that is used to amplify the sound of sermons, the choir, and perhaps other music groups. This is important because it means you already have some of the key parts of a recording system: microphones and cables. So let's look at what else you'll need.
				The recording deck - If you'll only be recording sermons, also known as spoken-word recording, you don't need to think about multi-tracking (capturing several sound sources at the same time, or layering sound-on-sound). For this purpose, a relatively inexpensive cassette tape recorder, available from most audio retailers, will work just fine. But if you're planning on recording more than just spoken-word, a multi-track console is a very handy item to have. Think of a multi-track recorder as 4 or 8 (or even 16 or more) separate tape recorders, or tracks, all synchronized together inside one box. The ability to assign different parts of the choir, or instruments such as the bass guitar or drums, to individual tracks provides valuable control of the overall sound during the mixdown, when all the parts are blended into the final recording.
	What You Get... In the old days - and we're talking about only ten to twenty years ago -multi-track recording meant operating a separate recording machine and a mixing board. The budget-conscious recording consoles we're looking at in this article combine multi-track recording and mixing capabilities. This means you can bounce tracks (combine recordings on track 1, track 2 and track 3 onto open track 4, thus freeing up tracks 1, 2, and 3 again), perform rolling punch-ins (fix specific sections of a vocal or instrumental recording while the tape is rolling), bring in effects like reverb and delay through effects sends, and much more, all from one set of controls.
	Tape or Digital? -In the fast changing world of do-it-yourself recording, digital technology is rapidly becoming the standard. For this reason, cassette tape recorders with four or eight tracks -cutting-edge stuff only 10 years ago - are now available for very reasonable prices. The cost of 4-track Tascam or Fostex multi-track tape machines (once close to $1,000) have recently dropped to $150 or even less.
						The key word in successful multi-track recording is ÒseparationÓ. The better you can isolate individual sounds on different tracks and keep them from bleeding onto other tracks, the more control you have of the final result. For example, let's say that youÕre recording a youth music group live during a service. The singer has a handheld mic which you've assigned to track 1 on your four-track recorder. The guitar player has a mic on his amp that's channeled into track 2. The bass amp is also miked and is assigned track 3. And youÕve decided to place a single overhead mic on the drums and put that signal into track 4. So far so good - except that when the singer stands in front of the band, the sound of all the other instruments will bleed into his microphone. This means that when you go to mix the final recording, every time you raise the vocal mic, you'll also be raising the drums, guitar and bass whether you want to or not. This is always a challenge with live recording and there are techniques that allow you to get the best result which we'll go into in later issues. For now, you should just be aware that you need to try and isolate each recorded sound as much as possible in a multi-track recording.
			The new generation of digital recorders capture sound on Compact Flash cards, similar to digital cameras. A 32 megabyte Compact Flash card, for example, holds up to 10 minutes of 4-track recording, plus the stereo master track. Small, versatile, and very portable, the new digital recorders enable you to make your final mixdown in WAV or MP3 formats so you can send it directly through built-in USB ports to a computer to burn CDs, email, or even post right on your congregation's web site. Just as in multi-track cassette recorders, the main names in multi-track digital recorders are Tascam and Fostex, along with well-known music brands such as Yamaha, Korg, and Roland. Tascam's Pocketstudio¨ 5 4-track recorder is loaded with features, runs for two hours using standard AA-sized alkaline batteries (also runs on standard AC), and includes over 100 built-in sound effects for instruments and vocals. All this for a current street price of less than $400.For about the same price, the Fostex MR-8 offers basically the same line up of features in 8-track recording with an easy to use control panel.
	Of course, there's also the computer-based digital recording option. Assuming you have a computer (at least 166 MHz Pentium with 64 megabytes of RAM and 4 gigabytes of free hard disk space), you'll need to add a high quality sound card and some software. A good quality sound card runs around $500 and is usually bundled with all the software you'll need to record audio and store it on your hard disk in the same 44.1 KHz resolution used by DATs and CDs.
	Mixing Down - One of the great features of multi-track digital recorders is that you can perform your final stereo mixdown right on the recorder itself, then export it as a WAV or MP3 file to a computer or CD burner. Multi-track cassette decks record at a higher tape speed than standard audio tape players, so you'll need something to mix down to when you're finished laying down all your tracks. Any good quality cassette recorder will do. Just check to make sure it has external line inputs that accept RCA connectors. Connections are Everything - Speaking of connectors, keep in mind that the lower priced recorders tend to only accept 1/4'connectors (like the kind on a guitar cord) and the better ones accept 3-pin XLR connections, which are found on higher quality microphones. Check out a machine thoroughly before you purchase it to make sure it's compatible with the equipment you're using.
	Splitting the Signal: The Hard Working Transformer Assuming that you'll be recording at your church, you'll either be recording live during the service or when the room is empty. Apart from the acoustic issues this raises it also brings up the question of whether or not to split the signal. The microphone cables in your system now are most likely running direct into your PA mixing console. To add a recording deck to this system means you have to A) run a signal out of either the monitor send or the auxiliary send on the mixing console, or B) use signal splitters to separate the signals before they reach both pieces of equipment. Option A, the Shared System is pretty straightforward - you're sending a pre-fader signal to the recorder, which means you can control the recorder separately from the front-of-house system. Some mixers even have a "tape out" send, which makes it even easier to figure out.
	Option B, the Dedicated System is a little trickier. Each audio source - microphones, instruments, etc.- is fed directly to a signal splitter. The signal is then "split" out to both the main house mixer, and to the recording console. A transformer in the splitter isolates each signal so there is no interference, sending a clean and identical audio feed to each device. Why not just use an inexpensive Y-cable? Anyone who has tried this seemingly common sense approach will tell you that the hums and buzz caused by ground loops just don't justify the savings in the end.
	If you can manage it technically and financially, the Dedicated System will give you the most satisfying result, with both the house system and the recording system each receiving equal audio attention, each free to do what they need to; setting levels, EQ and effects separately, without getting in each other's way or compromising either effort. One last note about the Dedicated System: condenser microphones, which are a very popular choice in churches, especially for choirs, rely on either internal batteries or phantom power, which comes back up the cable from the mixer. Using a splitter may interfere with the phantom power source reaching your microphone. If you're using condenser mics and are considering splitting the audio signal, it's probably a good idea to consult an audio engineer before purchasing any equipment. Hopefully, we've given you enough information to get started in the exciting world of do-it-yourself audio recording. In future newsletters we'll look at more specific topics and try to provide useful tips that will help make your recordings sound great. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would just like to learn more about recording, www.shure.com has many interesting and educational resources.
	Also In This Issue: The Basics of Recording    Tales from the front     Sound Man/Shure Fan    The Shure Calendar Product Spotlight    Email this article to a friend Change my preferences     Privacy Policy You are receiving Shure Notes/Houses of Worship because our records show you have opted in for communications from Shure. To change your profile or subscribe to other Shure publications, click here. To remove your name from future Shure Notes/Houses of Worship newsletters, you may also hit the REPLY button and type the word REMOVE in the text box. Accept our apologies if we have sent you this communication in error.