Proof of Concept:
Although Eric Whitacre sucessfully demonstrated virtual choir concept, Walter initiated a proof of concept as a learning exercise to discover the procedural and technical requirements and issues involved in such a venture.
Shenandoah:
Out of convenience, the song 'Shenandoah', an American folk song arranged by Russell Robinson, was used for the proof-of-concept. This is a relatively simple 3 part harmony for Tenor, Bass 1 and Bass 2.
A 'virtual choir' was quickly assembled from the two choirs Walter is associated with. A total of 16 members were informally assembled (i.e. when asked if they would participate, they said yes), of which 5 provided a total of 17 individual recordings. One of the benefits of joining a virtual choir is that you can sing more that one part and do so many times.
The sheet music was notated in Finale SongWriter 2012, from which practice audio files were generated for the three parts. These were distributed to the 16 volunteers, with instructions on what they were to do. In due course, the digital recordings were sent via email to Walter, who aggregated and processed these inputs using Audacity to produce the final aggregated audio file. As this exercise was limited to audio recording, Walter created a final video presentation using the Ken Burns effect of ProShow Gold to simulate video animation and added to this the aggregated audio file.
The video below, presents the final result achieved by the exercise. Thanks to Julie Campbell for providing the sheet music and those who were rounded up by Colin Campbell, participated and added value to the exercise by giving feedback:
A 'virtual choir' was quickly assembled from the two choirs Walter is associated with. A total of 16 members were informally assembled (i.e. when asked if they would participate, they said yes), of which 5 provided a total of 17 individual recordings. One of the benefits of joining a virtual choir is that you can sing more that one part and do so many times.
The sheet music was notated in Finale SongWriter 2012, from which practice audio files were generated for the three parts. These were distributed to the 16 volunteers, with instructions on what they were to do. In due course, the digital recordings were sent via email to Walter, who aggregated and processed these inputs using Audacity to produce the final aggregated audio file. As this exercise was limited to audio recording, Walter created a final video presentation using the Ken Burns effect of ProShow Gold to simulate video animation and added to this the aggregated audio file.
The video below, presents the final result achieved by the exercise. Thanks to Julie Campbell for providing the sheet music and those who were rounded up by Colin Campbell, participated and added value to the exercise by giving feedback:
- Keith Spence
- Sean Monahan
- Ian Malcolm
- Peter Wilshaw
Lessons Learned:
This has been a very useful exercise, where lessons learned fell into three categories: project, process, technology and performance.
