Sunday the 20th December 2015 was the date of the Carol service recording at Reigate Baptist Church, Sycamore Walk, Reigate.
The equipment had been prior set up by Neil Munday of the Outdoor Sound Company and close discussion with the church technical team allowed feed to be taken from their own sound console.
All was ready – all systems tested, recorders all ready.
The big day – technical rehearsals started at 4pm with the final choir at 6.30pm. The doors opened at 7pm with the church filling to standing room only and it’s a big space! The concert began (now one thing you have to remember is digital recorders only save when you press stop!) all was well – a pause in proceedings gave opportunity to stop the recorder and start a new track about 1/3 in. The following hour went by the recording was sounding fantastic and we got to the playout music and ahhh Nooooo! a power interruption, a few seconds but the last 2/3 of the concert was lost. Very brisk discussions were had, and it entailed that the last 3rd was recorded on another circuit as the church wished to keep the recording of their retiring Pastor so we were missing the middle third.
What happened next was pure Christmas Spirit and a small miracle as the worship Band and church`s own Choir came together on the stage and a third of the audience returned to the church hall after mince pies and 6 pieces were rerecorded.
The responsibility then fell on Neil after discussions with Geoff Rogers Susy radio`s Programmes Director that we could not fill 1.5 hours but an hour only perhaps!
Neil went away and put all the audio on his home studio computer and reassembled the concert in the correct order of service, some pieces were cut as personal but remaining in context of the service, pauses were shortened by 10th`s of a second and audience responses of clapping were copied and reinserted with the smaller audience clapping used for the solo periods a gentle amount of reverberation added to small parts and 19hours later a programme was formed.
Scripts were then written and Mike Williams (Our Susy Presenter – Mike) stepped up to record the intros and outros with a lead in by Neil himself. Mike had fun and declared “This is not easy!” on his 7th take! But all got a mention even if we were not able to put in two choirs which the recordings were lost totally.
A huge thank you to the Reigate Baptist Church – Technical Team, Worship Band and Choir plus the congregation who were the best ever.
A Church First 1.5 Carol concerts in one night!
Below is the edited concert as broadcast, the promo and some independent tracks that were brilliant!
Carol Concert Promo
