Virtual Choir
Many choral artists are turning to virtual choir videos as a way of making music together. In virtual choirs, individual videos are assembled to create a single video of all singers, giving the illusion of a unified choral presentation. The result is the closest to the choral performance we are accustomed to in in-person concerts, but the experience of making the videos is quite different, since the final individual videos are created separately from other singers. The first virtual choir video was of Eric Whitacre's Lux Aurumque in March 2010, and he and his team have gone on to create several more virtual choir projects that often include thousands of singers. You can see more about Whitacre's project here.
There are many guides to making virtual choir videos, and a growing number of people that are available to create videos for hire. Certainly, creating virtual choir videos requires significant technical skill, but with dedication and time, it's possible to do this without hiring someone.
A guide to making virtual choir videos created by C4 Ensemble's Fahad Siadat can be seen here.
Below are my suggestions for how to create virtual choir videos, but of course you should modify these for your own ensembles.
Before You Make Your Video: Legal Concerns
A caveat that I am not a copyright expert, so please do your own research on the following.
Even if you're doing this work online and sharing digital copies with your singers, you must purchase one copy per user (singers, conductor, accompanist, etc) of all music and editions that are not in the public domain. Remember, composers live from the proceeds of their works, and we are morally obligated (and should want) to support our fellow musicians and abide by very reasonable laws.
Before you release your video (and maybe even before you begin with the process altogether), make sure to secure the appropriate rights to the work.
For a video that is being streamed online, you will probably need a Sync License, or synchronization rights. Here's a video about Sync Licenses. There are three companies that own much of the licensing for music in the United States: BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. Each company contains a page where you can type in the information of your piece and see if it's covered by them. The composer and/or publisher may also be able to help you with this process.
If all you are doing is streaming your video on YouTube (which I assume includes your organization's YouTube channel), you may only need a synchronization license. While YouTube has deals with many of the large publishing houses, they may not cover sync licenses for your project. I have been told that they have algorithms that will likely identify your music and link it to the copyright owner automatically and they will then put ads on the video to gain monetization. However, do your due diligence and contact the publisher to make sure that you're doing things legally. Many of the publishers I have contacted about sync licenses have their own sync contracts, and do not work directly with YouTube. Some publishers are happy to have you promote their work, and do not charge additionally for a sync licenses. Others charge anywhere from $50-$250 or more. You can read an article about licensing content for YouTube here.
Regardless of whether you're just releasing your virtual choir on YouTube or doing more (ie creating a CD or DVD), contact the licensing or publishing company, and tell them what you're planning to do (ie. I am a choral conductor and my choir can not give public performances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to make a virtual choir video of "Such and such" by "So and So" to release in the "such and such" manner. Do I need to secure a sync license with you to cover this type of release?). There are exceptions to the licensing laws for schools and some other organizations, but don't make assumptions and make sure to do your research. Some companies include sync licenses with the purchase of their sheet music. Some publishers have in-house licensing agreements available.
As I said above, do your homework and make sure you're covered. If you are in found to be in violation of licensing laws, your video may be taken down. On the YouTube platform, if you have three videos removed, they will eliminate your channel. Ouch.
Conductors: Selecting and Preparing Repertoire
Repertoire: Choose music that is not too complicated or long. Music without a lot of tempo changes will be simpler to work with. While your singers can submit video and audio in smaller pieces, it will be easier to edit complete tracks together, so you want to make sure that the video can be captured in as few takes as possible.
Guide Tracks: Create guide tracks for each voice part, plus one for the composite piece. Singers will need to record their final individual recording as closely aligned with the guide track as possible, including placement of consonants. Your guide track can be a MIDI file of the individual parts or synced vocal parts recorded by one or more singers. There are companies and individuals that have a catalogue of guide tracks or will make them for you for a fee. Sacred & Profane has found Matthew Curtis Choral Tracks invaluable.
Click Guide: Include or add a click guide that's aligned to the metronome BPM (beats per minute) of the music. For Sacred & Profane's tracks, we include 3 times the number of beats before the music starts, set to the BPM (metronome marking). If the piece is in triple meter, there are 9 guide clicks; if the piece is in quadruple meter, there are 12 guide clicks. For a quadruple meter piece, singers listen to the first group of 4, clap with the second group of 4, listen to the third group of 4, and then began to sing with the guide track. I've seen other suggestions for six clicks: listen for 2, clap with 2, listen for 2, sing. Including click guides will probably save you hours in the editing stage of making this videos.
Score Annotations: If your music is notated, provide singers with a score that matches the guide tracks. Consider the location and length of breaths, placement of consonants, diction, etc.
Conducting Video: Consider providing a conducting video that is synced with the guide tracks, so singers watch this when making their final video. You can always make a rough video for rehearsal purposes and a performance-ready video later. I chose to make my performance videos at the beginning of the process.
Singers and Conductors: Rehearsal and Preparing to Make the Video
Rather than assuming singers will learn their part entirely on their own, use the online rehearsal as an opportunity to prepare the work together, as much as possible as you would in an in-person rehearsal.
Discuss the text in depth, with genuine consideration of the meaning and implications of the poetry.
Discuss the composer and poet and/or the historical, cultural, or social justice relevance of the work.
Review the diction carefully. This can be an opportunity to teach IPA.
Play a full recording of the work, while singers sing their part while on mute.
Coach individual singers on their part, while other singers listen or sing along while on mute. This can present an opportunity to teach proper vocal technique and style for the specific work, and to work on expressive and technical goals for the performance.
Sing or play a single part, while other singers listen or sing along while on mute.
Use breakout rooms to have section leaders rehearse with their sections. Section leaders can sing or play parts with others on mute, or they can work with the pre-recorded guide track for their section.
Have singers record themselves singing tests. They can pair up with other singers and share recordings and offer suggestions to each other. Or have singers send tests to section leaders, the assistant conductor, or the conductor. Consider assigning short passages of pieces, so as to not overwhelm singers. Keep the feedback constructive, but always positive and supportive – it can be intimidating or even traumatizing to hear oneself sing if not accustomed to it. Tests can be recorded directly in Zoom or on mobile phones and easily emailed.
Consider using My Choral Coach or other tools to test for pitch and rhythm accuracy and other issues.
Some suggest recording the audio and video separately, but I think using a single synced video/audio will aid a synced final project.
Some suggest that editing together shorter recordings can work fine. I would suggest doing your best to capture the entire video in one take.
Singers: Making Your Video
This is the guide for my singers. Feel free to create your own!
Practice online with your ensemble and on your own until you are able to sing with the guide track with little to no variance from the recording.
Don't procrastinate! Plan ahead and start early. You don't want your conductor to be waiting for your video after the deadline.
If you can, use the technology suggestions on this site, including a USB mic, a USB or other wired (not Bluetooth) headset, and a webcam if possible. But don't be deterred if you don't have these things. I've seen beautiful and moving virtual choir videos assembled from individual videos recorded on mobile phones.
You can record your video using Quicktime, a video camera, or other technology. Most computers have Quicktime preloaded:
On Mac, it’s easy to record video and audio using the included Quicktime Player. Find it in your Applications folder (in Finder); open it; go to File-New Movie Recording. It should default to your webcam on your computer, in which case you’ll see yourself. It will use whatever audio input you have set up—your computer’s (or headphones’) built-in microphone by default. You can change the audio input by clicking on the apple icon in the upper right corner, selecting System Preferences, Sound, the Input tab, and the input of your choice.
In Windows 10, you can use the Camera app (search “Camera” in the bar at the bottom). Make sure to select video. The app should similarly use your default audio input—if you search “Sound settings” in the same bar, you can scroll down to where it says “Input”, select your input, and test your microphone.
Allow plenty of time to make your video. It will likely take at least a few takes to arrive at something you're happy with.
Record your video in a quiet room. Close all the windows. Set your phone to silent and unplug tech that buzzes or beeps. Try to be distanced from appliances that make noise if possible, such as refrigerators. Tell everyone in your household that you'll need quiet for a while, and see if someone can take the dog for a walk. :)
Wear a solid color shirt or top in a dark shade, and film your video in front of a solid color background. Consider hanging a sheet if you don't have good wall space to work with. If that's not possible, try to at least clean up the space behind you a bit. :)
Stand close to the camera when filming, so that it's relatively close to your face.
Don't move too much while singing. I love your expressive movement in our in-person rehearsals and concerts, but if you move a lot in your virtual choir video, you'll move out of frame and we'll either have to decrease the video size or assign multiple frames to your video. But I want to see your musicality and artistry in your facial expression!
Maintain the same distance from your mic. Moving around will make your audio uneven and possibly distorted
If you are able to see the waveform when recording, adjust the gain so that you're not clipping (distorting on high or loud pitches). Create a dry recording - don't add any reverb or other effects. That will happen in post-production.
There are 12 clicks before the audio guide track begins. Listen to the first 4, clap with the second 4, listen to the third 4, then sing. Make sure your clap is as close to perfectly aligned with the clicks as possible. We will use this to sync the audio files and videos in the engineering stage.
Try to match the guide track as closely as possible! But remember that the final product will contain several videos, so feel free to utilize staggered breathing and other choral techniques. The composite video should cover breaths and other discrepancies, but we will hear misplaced consonants, so do your best to align your consonants with the guide track. Aligned entrances and maintaining pitch accuracy is also important (try to not anticipate or shadow the guide track).
Before sending your video/audio, make sure to watch and listen to the whole thing. Is it a clean audio (room noise, clicks, dog barks, or other audio interference can be difficult and time consuming to edit out)? Does the video look good (check for framing, movement, and general image quality)?
Send your video/audio through a service that can handle large data files, such as Google Docs, Dropbox, WeTransfer, or another platform. It will be much too large to send as a standard email attachment. Sometimes mobile phones can work for sending large files.
Making the Video: Audio & Video Engineering
I will sheepishly admit that I did little to engineer the videos that Sacred & Profane made in the spring of 2020, as I'm fortunate to share my life and home with a software engineer who composes electronic music and who relished the opportunity to learn some new fun geeky technology. Here are some ideas.
Once you've separated the audio files from the video, work with an audio program that will allow you to engineer the audio separately. We used Reason, but other popular programs include Logic, Garageband, ProTools, among others.
Sync each choral section to its guide track, then remove the guide track from the audio. The claps will help you align the peaks in the sound files. You will probably want to spend some time engineering the audio (changing the "location" of singers in the "room", adding reverb, editing out noise and audio interference such as unwanted clicks, adjusting pitch in out-of-tune passages, eliminating singers for passages with rhythm or pitch errors, etc. I would suggest not going too far with this stage. I love my choirs and our singers' voices, and I want our final product to sound like us, not the Tallis Scholars (as much as I love the Tallis Scholars!). But there are certain inaccuracies that are easier to correct in in-person rehearsals prior to concerts than online, so I don't think it's disingenuous to do a little audio engineering with Virtual Choir videos. Once this is done, sync all choral sections together and listen for additional editing and engineering needs.
For making the video, you can work with a number of platforms, such as Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, or Apple iMovie.
You may want to do more than the usual "Brady Bunch" grid of singers faces. Think about including footage of something relevant to the subject of the piece, or collaborate with an instrumentalist or dancer, or have singers film themselves in their lives at home. There are a number of programs that will allow you to move video on the screen and to add special effects. My partner is planning to use Motion with Final Cut Pro X, but there are several programs that will do the same thing. You can also find plugins that have specific templates for placing videos in interesting positions or that have pre-set movement. Using someone else's template may seem like cheating, but it could help you save an enormous amount of time and frustration.
You will need to size each individual video and set them in the frame. There are lots of guides for this -
Virtual Choir How To Links (more online!):
This company will make virtual choir videos for you for a fee; but there are lots of people doing this now, so don't assume this is the best price you can get.
Releasing your Video
There are a number of platforms that you can use to release your video to the public. The most well-known are YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. Sacred & Profane created a YouTube Live broadcast in which we wove together various content, including two virtual choir videos, one video of a pre-recorded remote choir piece written by our assistant conductor Edna Yeh, a talk with me and Edna, and an audio of a blues piece sung by one of our singers with a video montage, and of course a donation request. This was an effective way to create a concert-like experience for our audiences, and share our music with people who would normally be much too far away to come to our concerts. What a great way to expand your audience and share your work with friends and family far and near! It can also be a good way to raise funds in the way of donations, when ticket sales are not a possible source of revenue.