Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
"Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
Date:  Mon Apr 23, 2001  4:07 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Recording Studios


Dear Linda and Vocalisters:

When classical singers sing in a recording studio their technique is
definitely compromised because they are trained to sing in a larger
venue with a reverb that they use as a bio-feedback. Any kind of
monitors that can be heard while singing cannot give the same effect
no matter how carefully they are programmed or planned. Recordings
of classical singers have been a great boon to acquaint the public
with the voices of our best singers in the last 75 years but they
have also had a major effect on the techniques of these singers and
not all of the effect is positive. The work of many singers who have
done numerous studio recording can be studiend and in almost every
case one will find that the singer gradually alters a well
established technique toward one that works well only in the
recording studio.

I have named some of these before, such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
and Elizabeth Schwartskopf but there are many others including the
singing of Caruso. In recordings that cover less than ten years in
their careers one can hear vocal changes that normally occur only
over 30 or so years. Perhaps these singers did not let these
changes occur during their live performances. I cannot attest to
that fact. But it is not difficult to hear the changes that occur in
their recordings. I think we are now hearing the same effect in the
singing of Thomas Hampson and others in the present day.

The singers least affected by this phenomena are those whose
recordings were done in a proper sized hall or were recorded live in
performance.

Today it is most common for opera impresarios to use audition
recordings, usually CD's, to determine who they will hear for
upcoming roles. Often those who record well do not sound well in
the venue of the opera company because they recorded in a studio and
had some reverb added by an audio engineer as is done in most
commercial recordings. And, most suprisingly, very often these same
opera impresarios cannot understand why the singer was so fine on the
CD and so average in the hall.

In my opinion, recording of voices is an infant art that has not been
well addressed by the recording industry but, instead, is evaluated
by whether a recording will sell rather than if it is a more accurate
reproduction of the sound of the voice in a live performance in a
proper venue.

I know of few classical trained voices that record well in a studio
environment.

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