Requiem by G.Verdi

[Petr Schreiber]

Two friends of mine (and colleagues at robo-work) take part in project "Step towards reconciliation" (not sure if it is correct translation) as members of orchestra.
The project consists of concert series, which should highlight improvement of the Czech-German relationship after ugly things which happened during WWII (from both sides).

The video can be watched here:


If you are curious, where did it take place, it was in Terezín, which is where the concentration camps were during the WWII.
I think they performed really well - although it is a bit longer, definitely worth listening.

From the technical point of view, to record the event, I lent this hardware to the guys:

• Canon HV40 camcorder
• Zoom H2 sound recorder

It is quite interesting to see that the tape based cameras can become an issue for this type of recording - the music was planned to go without any pauses (or little) for approximately 1 hour 40 minutes, but the MiniDV casettes are sold only in 60min or 90min versions. Exchanging tape in the middle was not physically possible.

For longer recording, you can enable LP (long play) mode. Sadly, although Canon HV40 in its native HD mode provides beautiful clean and sharp video, the LP (long play) mode can work only in DVD resolution (576 rows). I think this might be quite interesting information if you are considering LP recording, comparing to HD it is a big step down.

The sound in the linked video was recorded separately on Zoom H2, because the music has high dynamic range, which default or even external microphones don't always handle well. The device was not placed near camera at all, but near the wall at opposite end of the church. Although H2 offers uncompressed WAV recording, it would be too big. Event the MP3 file ended to be about 200MB of size. Both media were combined together in post.

I know this post is quite off topic, but I though you might like the music (which I enjoyed a lot) and the few technical tips might be hopefully of some use if you plan to do something similar in future.


Petr

[danbaron]

I can only look at the first frame of the video.

Wow, that's a nice looking church.

The closest I get to such an event, is the 8 ball tournament every Friday night at our local pool hall.

[Charles Pegge]

Hi Petr,

Recording near an accoustic surface seems to give could results, when recording an orchestra or choir.

I think one should have the requiem before dying, it would be a wonderful boost to the ego

Charles