Exceedingly Curious

On December 31, 2010, the three best singers on the planet–Dvorah Governale, Sarah Governale, and Sofrona Zane–gathered in my office to make an impromptu recording of If You Could Hie to Kolob.

I set up an Audio-Technica AT2020 mic and plugged it into a Behringer 802 mixer, which was connected to my computer via a Behringer UCA202 USB interface. The mic, with no windscreen, was on a stand about two feet from the singers. This would be recording into Audacity.

For curiosity sake, I also fired up my Zoom H4n and put it on a stand in the corner, about six feet away from the singers. Had I been thinking, I would have put it right next to the AT2020.

Sarah, who a few days earlier had married my son, Michael, asked that the recording be used as the background for a photo montage of the wedding.

Later, when I listened to the two recording–each done a 48 kbs 24-bit–I couldn’t decide which I liked best. I attempted to combine them, one on the right stereo channel, the other on the left. The result was a full sound, made fuller by the fact that the two recording were not precisely aligned. (My bad.) This I used for the video below.

The women didn’t like the combined recording as much as either of the separate recordings. I’m not changing the video, by am posting the separate recordings as MP3s.

Here are the MP3s. Click the triangle to play, or you may download for free. These files have no post processing.

If You Could Hie to Kolob — Zoom H4n version

If You Could Hie to Kolob — AT2020 version