Case Study: Creating better ensembles with M-Audio recording packages

Dr. Brimmer’s theory was that the anonymity of singing in a group masked the individual work that students still needed to put into their personal rehearsal for a given piece. “I wanted to find a way to record Jordan Jazz with every singer on their own individual track, so that after a rehearsal or performance, my singers could sit down and really hear firsthand whether or not they were putting in a quality performance,” said Brimmer.

The problem was that all of the hardware-based recording systems that could record 16 tracks of digital audio simultaneously were too expensive. Dr. Brimmer had heard that M-Audio was a company that was shattering price points in the music industry, so he contacted Ken Johnson, M-Audio’s Director of Education. “Ken suggested a bundle they call the Director’s Studio Bundle. It consists of their FireWire 1814 audio interface, 2 Octane preamps, and a copy of Ableton Live recording software,” said Brimmer. “This is a computer based recording system. I used my Macintosh Powerbook G4 as the computer. Other than that, the entire system was about $2,000.00 – many thousands less than any other solution I looked at,” said Brimmer.

Dr. Brimmer records rehearsals and requires performers to schedule a time to listen and fill out an evaluation form based on their individual performances. “The students were really depressed about the quality of their singing, but it really made it very clear how much work they were going to have to put in to get to the next level – it was much more effective than me trying to tell them!” exclaimed Dr. Brimmer. “You know how a football coach sits down and watches a game film for insights into how his team can play better? Well this is like a game film for choir directors. Ableton Live software is very easy to use – the interface is very clear. The ability for the performers and the director to break down a rehearsal in any way, evaluate performances for pitch, rhythmic accuracy, etc. gives everyone so much detail for guiding future rehearsals. We love it – and it is really helping to make us a better ensemble.”

This of course only will work with choirs that are mic'ed, but many thousands of college, high school and jr. high vocal jazz and show choirs do just that. Microphones can either be plugged directly into the Octane preamps (no sound system used in this case), split to the sound system and the Octanes (using transformer splitters), or by taking direct outs from the sound system mixing console (in which case only one Octane is needed).

For more info contact an M-Audio certified academic reseller or our education sales office.