Skip to main content

Recording Insights from Libertaria the Virtual Opera

Recording Insights from Libertaria the Virtual Opera

When producing a large‐scale music project through the Internet communication, flexibility,
and organization are key components for success. Any composer wishing to collaborate with dozens of musicians and artist through the Internet needs to wear multiple hats, including director, manager, tech support, and coach. Needless to say, jumping between roles involves a keen sensitivity to each musician’s needs, especially considering the cold nature of Internet communication.

The Libertaria cast worked on the recordings for the opera for over eighteen months. After downloading the Libertaria Cast Rehearsal Albums from Bandcamp.com, the cast members recorded their vocals using the included scores and click tracks. Without set live rehearsals for this all‐volunteer project, the composer, cast, and crew had to work with a very flexible schedule that allowed for work obligations, touring, family emergencies, and cast changes throughout the process. After trying several forms of communication including Skype, Facebook, and telephone, the most effective means of communication was e‐mail, with the

exception of one animator that preferred live chat in Facebook. The composer used a master spreadsheet to keep track of cast and crew members and used Dropbox to organize and share files.

Perry Cook, founder of Princeton’s PLOrk and advisor to the top‐selling Apps company SMUle, describes the recording process for Libertaria:
This style of production fits extremely well with a workflow I commonly use to produce my own musical pieces. I leave my studio fully set up, so when I get an idea I go in and record some. When things have solidified, I record a lot more takes, edit, iterate, and finally come up with the final product. This is even easier, because Sabrina has already written and scored it, and I just have to learn it, perform it well a few times, pick the four or five best, and ship it off to let her worry about the rest. I can also record a character/scene multiple ways (opera vs. broadway, sad versus intense, etc. , and let her pick the one she likes).




Any one song for Libertaria has several takes per opera character. Complicated full cast numbers like Pilar of the Underground have over forty vocal tracks that need to be spliced, edited, and cleaned up by the composer. The process is tedious and dependent on the recording quality of the original. In some cases, cast members had to rerecord their takes because of clipping, distortion, or submitting compressed mp3 files. Clean raw vocal recordings work best when mixing hundreds of audio files. Some opera cast members submitted alternate takes with effects and full mixes. The composer usually saved these “wet” mixes for promotional purposes, test animations, and extra scenes not in the screenplay, and Alt Rock singer Matthew Meadows, who shares the role of Simeon, reached thousands of music fans with his alternate mix of the jazzy solo Metal Ink. While having hundreds of audio files to work with provides the composer with limitless ways to mix the audio down, some disadvantages include overlooking files, missing files, too much time choosing between nearly identical takes, and CPU overload when automation is applied. For example, in Pilar of the Underground, the composer had to export the entire orchestral track to a single stereo track to mix the vocals because Logic could not run the original sixty‐five track mix with full automation, dozens of automated vocal tracks, and complex software instruments. At the time of this article, the music production has wrapped up and Libertaria is in the middle of animation production. Post‐production will follow for the next five months, with a final cut of the animation and a mastered vocal score completed at the end of the summer.

Singer Jennifer Hermansky, currently on tour with The Wizard of Oz, shares her thoughts on singing for animation:
The challenges in voice acting for animations is not knowing how the animated character will move during your songs or lines. You have to take the story, lines, and music as inspiration for how you will perform the character. 



Like this video? 

Then you will love Composer Boot Camp 101: 
50 Exercises for Students, Educators, and Music Professionals!

The ESSENTIAL MUSIC BOOK for any serious songwriter, producer, film composer, composer, musician, educator, performer, music professional, or student.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EDGY New Film : Special Needs Revolt! A man with Down syndrome is on a mission to save America from a racist dictatorship

Special Needs Revolt!  Is an action-horror-comedy film. The film's hero, Billy Bates, who will be played by up-and-coming actor Samuel Dyer, is a young man with Down syndrome. Billy wakes up from a two-year coma and discovers that the United States has been turned into a brutal dictatorship thanks to President Kruger, to be played by award-winning veteran actor Bill Weeden ( Sgt. Kabukiman   N.Y.P.D. ). Kruger has put all people with disabilities into institutions. Billy becomes the leader of a diverse group of resistance fighters committed to ending Kruger's reign of terror. "Special Needs Revolt!" is also a satire on our current political situation, done in the style of Troma Entertainment. Lloyd Kaufman of Troma will appear in the film.  CHECK OUT THE INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN:  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/special-needs-revolt#/ Adrian’s latest work  Special Needs Revolt!  may seem edgy and even shocking to some. However, it demonstrates that he is grow

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide Don't have any time to balance rehearsals, exams, and a social life? Then read on!  So you find that between playing in orchestra, the school musical, a solo recital or two, joining Sigma Alpha Iota or Phi Mu Alpha , playing in the alternative band at night, pep band, and marching band that you can't keep your eyes open, let alone study for the music history midterm next week or even begin to write your term paper on Debussy? Then read on and learn to balance life in Music School. 1) Musicians DO need to Sleep   Yes, you need to sleep, even if it is only five hours a night plus catnaps. Your brain cannot function if you do not sleep. So sleep, even if that means that you can't play in that awesome alternative band that jams every other night till 5am at the local bar. 2) Eat right and exercise Okay, so I sound like your parents, or Oprah, but I am serious. My biggest mistake as an undergrad (well, one of my bigges

Percussion Instruments 101: How to Play the Concert Triangle

PHOTO"wikimedia.org Percussion Instruments 101: How to Play the Concert Triangle There are literally hundreds of concert percussion instruments in use every day throughout the world. Whether you are playing percussion in a drum circle in Ghana , a jazz band in New Orleans , or a symphony orchestra in Sweden, you are playing an instrument that has traveled and mutated throughout the globe. The percussion instrument the triangle , is a metal rod bent into the shape of a two dimensional geometric triangle with one of the bottom corners disconnected to allow sound waves to escape. The concert triangle often has a slight difference, in that it may have a hole in one corner to loop a piece of nylon to hang the concert triangle. If it is an Alan Abel triangle, it will have a slight difference in the open end. That angle will end in a different thickness, supposedly to help the triangle sound to escape better acoustically. The triangle may be struck near one of the closed an