INTRODUCTION
For this weeks blog I have decided to report on an exciting event I was involved in on Saturday July 23rd at the Arts Centre, Hamer Hall. The event was called “Windrush” by The Boîte Millennium Chorus. For several weeks the choir and band were learning and rehearsing classic Reggae and calypso songs reminiscent of the times and moments of the Windrush. My involvement in the production was percussionist performing traditional Jamaican rhythms Kumina and Mento joined by Jigzie Campbell who performed the traditional dances and songs for both rhythms. I was also asked to join the band for a few numbers playing percussion for songs West Indians in England, Dynamite and the finale Bob Marley’s Three little Birds.
Besides enjoying the performance I had the opportunity to observe the live sound technicians and crew at work while checking out some of the different equipment and mic placements. On Friday night before the performance at Hamer Hall there was a rehearsal with the band and choir at the Melbourne Cathedral which was a spectacular building. In fact the voices of the choir resonated so beautifully in this building I was inspired to briefly explore the design and acoustics of churches.
ACOUSTICS OF A CHURCH/CATHEDRAL
I remember the mention of churches and their unique acoustics at the beginning of my studies. However from memory most of the churches I have attended in the past were not large buildings with high ceilings and if they were I was not paying much attention to how their structure affected the sound waves travelling through them. However this time at the Melbourne Cathedral I was well aware and noticed straight away the hard wooden and stone surfaces with an incredibly high and triangular roof design. These materials and spacious design features of coarse create an amazing reverberation in the building perfect for a choir. Although this design is ideal for several singing voices to be blended carried and heard it may not be ideal for solo speeches which explains why a microphone is needed for the priest or guest speakers at a church. If the church was a compact box shaped structure surrounded by curtains, achieving that classic church reverberation would be very difficult or impossible. In fact observing the rehearsal I noticed that the band and lead singers who were miked up and using a standard PA system were very hard to hear in the Cathedral unless you were positioned front on where the speakers were facing. Although the choir was not miked they could be heard consistently all around the Cathedral.
ACOUSTICS OF SAINT PAUL CATHEDRAL
GLASS CATHEDRAL
PERFORMANCE AT HAMER HALL
The state of art equipment and acoustics at Hamer Hall are outstanding. I noticed not only a left and right row of speaker arrays were rigged up but also another stereo pair of speaker arrays rigged up a lot closer to the top row of the hall. This of coarse would reach the very back row at the top level. At first glance I was puzzled that only four pencil condenser mics were position on high stands at the bottom of the choir formation to capture the ambience of the choir. This was a very affective attribute to the overall sound but my concern was whether it was enough to capture and isolate the important solo parts and different sections of the choir. After a second glance I became aware that there were infact many other pencil mics hanging down from the ceiling, attached by wire positioned at different sections of the choir. The name given for this is hanging choir mics and condensers are the preferred choice as they are capable of picking up voices up to seven metres away. The pollar pattern usually used for this operation is cardiod.
I also noticed that the drummer was using an amplifier directly behind him as opposed to using a side fill. He was position right next to the bass player. My position was also not far from the drums and bass. In fact the rhythm section, the brass, guitar and keys were all positioned on the stage left hand side. The other band members such as lead singers and conductors were position in the centre and right hand side of the stage. This meant that during sound check many of the musicians with side fills or monitors were continually asking the in house engineer for different instruments to be adjusted in their monitor mix.
HAMER HALL VENUE
REFERENCES
Acoustics and Sound Systems in the Contemporary Church. (2016). Rane.com. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from http://www.rane.com/note163.html
Acoustics in the Cathedral of Saint Paul. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7jMfPisqBY
Boite Millennium Chorus | The Boite. (2016). Boite.com.au. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from http://boite.com.au/boite-millennium-chorus
Choir Microphones – Hanging Choir Mics. (2016). Kingdom.com. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from http://www.kingdom.com/products/microphones/choir-microphones-hanging-choir-microphones.html
Hamer Hall. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpc8TypOgeU
Melbourne, A. (2016). The Boîte Millennium Chorus – Windrush | Arts Centre Melbourne. Artscentremelbourne.com.au. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/event-archive/2016/world-jazz-folk/the-boite-windrush
MV Empire Windrush. (2016). Wikipedia. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Empire_Windrush
windrush hamer hall – Google Search. (2016). Google.com.au. Retrieved 25 July 2016, from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=windrush+hamer+hall&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQsYHigo7OAhUDG5QKHaBdDXIQ_AUICSgC&biw=1040&bih=663#tbm=isch&q=windrush+the+boite+millennium+chorus+hamer+hall
AUSTRAJAM PRODUCTIONS 2016
AustraJam Productions 