Originally Posted by
Litespeedlouie
You have found the 2 divergent recording techniques for non-pop music recording. However, if you have no experience doing this, you are guaranteed amateur results.
The multi-track method allows nearly unlimited ability to tweak every instrument and singer, and the expense of billable hours. Pretty much every pop recording is done this way. It can take months of work to fix everything up after the fact.
Anything that actually sounds good live can be recorded live to stereo for a CD. There is absolutely no reason for this to not sound professional if you have the right engineer. Much of the same equipment may be used, but everything must be done perfectly, live, direct to stereo. While this puts pressure on the engineer to get it right - right now, it's commonly done for classical recordings. Most proponents argue that recording live groups results in a better musical performance, whereas multi-tracking usually has musicians playing in a little room by themselves with headphones, listening to prerecorded material or click tracks. The trick is finding a decent engineer who works like this, and it should cost less than having someone work for weeks afterwards.
CD duplicating is not rocket science. For quantities roughly below 200, duplicators with use towers of multiple CD burning computer drives. An inkjet printer prints the design on each CD. Printed materials can be done in color Xerox. If you are real low budget, you can do this on home equipment.
For larger quantities, it pays to press the CDs as there is a one-time charge for a CD glass master. Then it also usually pays to have a printer do the inserts and the artwork on the CD is silkscreened.
http://www.discmakers.com/ is the nation's gorilla for small batch CDs.
Louie is right on target. I can fill in some of what the engineering is. Back when I lived in Denver I took a semester of recording engineering at Auraria.
Your mikes are probably directional or cardioid (heart-shaped sensitivity pattern). It will be simplest if you only use two. The key things I watch for (I didn't go in the business, but I've recorded my wife's high-school singers quite a bit) are to focus on the performers and get stereo differentiation. I like to place the mikes so the distance between them and the performers is a third to a fifth of the distance to any other sound sources. Examples of undesireable other sources include people working in the kitchen (when recording at home), audiences coughing, chatting, or otherwise not paying attention (when recording a high school concert). Another example is a conductor moving pages, huffing and puffing, and whispering instructions or even singing with the singers. You don't want that stuff to stand out.
Directional mikes are most sensitive on their centerlines, and for about 40 degrees to either side. This cone must be pointed at the performers. For stereo, put the two mikes very close to each other but pointed in directions that are 90 degrees apart. This will get you a distinct separation of stereo content. For even coverage of all your singers, arrange them on the stage so they're fairly evenly spaced from the mike cluster. You don't want any of them to stick out. For a recording session in a home or even better a church sanctuary or community room, this should work out pretty well. In live recording you are constrained in where the singers can be.
Take some time to set the recording levels so the CD does not distort on the musical peaks, and that it generates enough volume that people can listen to it in their cars. Allow some "headroom" for the excitement of a live performance - performers are usually louder on peaks when the audience is present and responsive. Turn down the volume when the applause starts -- it WILL distort.
CU Denver has a pretty good recording engineering program. It used to be run by Bill Porter, who engineered Elvis' hits and a lot of Roy Orbison's. I took his course. I don't know who runs it now, but they had a good baseline to follow.
Contact me if you want to discuss.
Road Fan