Concert success

I think the concert went well. Good reports from those in the audience who've spoken to me. And the recording turned out really well too, which I'm very pleased about. The recording's only for the conductor and me - a lot of effort to rig and derig, but satisfying to do. The recording showed up some problems with the location: the choir sounds too distant, and the basses are not strong enough. I'm sure this is because we were almost under the chancel arch: a lot of the sound went behind us to be lost in the chancel. If we'd been in front of a solid wall the sound would have been reflected forward giving a much stronger sound. The balance between the soloists and the orchestra was good, but the orchestra sounded a bit heavy compared with the choir.

I've spent most of this afternoon editing the recording. I recorded in the church onto minidisc, then dubbed minidisc to minidisc digitally, then edited the resulting disc by dividing and moving/track erasing. Not perfect, but a quick way of producing something without all the gash bits whilst keeping the original discs untouched. Now I need to find a way of transferring digitally onto computer so I can do fades/mixes.

One of the audience took a photograph during the concert - and here it is.