Vocal Editing

In April, I told you about our vocal ensemble’s recording of a musical prayer for revival in our city, and asked you to pray about the audio technician’s editing work the following week.  Unfortunately we were less than satisfied with his product:  though the voices were synchronized, they weren’t properly balanced, and our dynamic variation had been lost in the editing.  Further, the music sounded robotic, a far cry from the natural human voices we’d recorded.

When we shared our concerns with the producer, he invited us over to collaborate on the audio editing.  Due to Jeremias’ work schedule and Saturdays filled with other events, it was only today that the two of us were finally able to accept his offer.  We wound our way along dirt roads outside of town until we pulled up to his home studio, then spent the next three and a half hours in the same dim cubicle where we’d recorded the song in April.

Throughout today’s session, a young audio editor deftly clicked and typed into a computer with two large monitors on his desk while the producer directed the process from his perch on a stool.  A third staff member arrived near the end to offer his advice.  Jeremias and I requested changes and evaluated the emerging results.

First we tackled the mechanized sound.  The editor rolled back some general effects he’d applied to the voices, then worked with us to make more specific adjustments until we were satisfied.  Next we balanced the parts:  Jeremias and I identified which pairs of voices sung the same part and the editor adjusted their relative volumes according to our instructions.

Then came little tweaks.  We fixed several phrase ends where not all the voices had released at the same time.  We also identified tuning problems and actually altered the pitches of problematic notes to conform to the correct harmony.  Did you know that could be done?!

Most complicated was re-inserting the dynamic variation, with both terraced volumes between sections and swells within phrases.  At first the editor didn’t understand what we wanted, but once he found the correct software tool, we were in business.  Finally, after we’d listened intently through the song several more times to catch any remaining glitches, he exported the audio as an MP3 file and sent it to Jeremias’s phone via Bluetooth.

After the entire vocal ensemble is satisfied with the audio, we plan to turn it into a music video.  Please pray for Jeremias as he defines the photo and video content to use for each phrase of the lyrics, and for other friends as they capture the solicited photos and videos around town.  Pray that Christ will be exalted in the video, and that it will be published at the right time; the holiday marking the anniversary of our city’s founding is August 22, but I doubt we’ll finish by that date this year.  Most importantly, please pray that the Lord will grant our heart-sung petition for local spiritual awakening.  Thank you.