Hi - after a few years of listening to badly played music on poorly tuned organs and bad singing by the congregation (despite the good technical quality of the recording) I am looking for a new creative approach to edit the hymns in church. I've tried overdubbing professionally recorded hymns but apart from timing issues it just sounds wrong.

Any creative ideas you guys would like to share?

Cheers

Pete

Peter, I share your judgment and concerns. Fortunately most of our couples choose to omit the hymns so we fade our during the intro and back in at the end of the hymn. If they insist on the hymns I know of no solution other than to record the original, unless you use loads of B roll and time getting the commercial sound into sync with the images.

With the processional/recessional we use professionally recorded pieces - fortunately during my time in France I got to know a "Maitre d'Orgue" very well and he recorded the most commonly used pieces on a small but very modern organ. This is invaluable because it's not getting identical recordings that's the problem but getting them on organs of the size and scale usually found in parish churches.

It's a tough situation especially if the organist is doing the bride a favour!! I had one that made countless mistakes during the bridal entrance but to overdub her would have been a sin as the bride even wanted her featured on the ceremony clip.

Where audio from the Church system is poor I usually grab the CD from the bride afterwards so I can dub over the live capture but with a large (especially a big pipe organ) it's hard to get the same result.

Even if the singing is poor (most guests are tone deaf anyway) at least you are accurately capturing the day for the bride. Who knows the guy that is singing the loudest and most out of tune might be her father!! and you dare not overdub that!!!

I think that sometimes we tend to look at technical perfection with our productions and that often might spoil the special mood that the bride expects???? Even if she has no technical expertise, she still knows that she never had a full orchestra at her wedding and would be happier for your final edit to be what she remembered even if the people sang out of tune

Chris

Chris.... opportunity is staring you in the face !!!

Chris' Wedding Videos and Singing Lessons LLC :-)

You can use that idea free of charge, I won't ask for my usual consulting fee. :-)

Chip's Videos and Business Consulting Serves LLC :-)

(snipped) Even if she has no technical expertise, she still knows that she never had a full orchestra at her wedding and would be happier for your final edit to be what she remembered even if the people sang out of tune

Chris

This is so right. Matching the sound is absolutely key; it's why I'm fortunate in having access to a recording of the Wagner/Mendelssohn pieces etc played well on a small organ. I'm seeing the guy at Christmas - I'm almost tempted to ask him if I can record a set and sell them. Sorry, bad idea.