Recording and Post-Production in Live Virtual Acoustics: 'The Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia'

On Demand

Presenter(s)

Jonathan S. Abel

Adjunct Professor
CCRMA, Stanford University
Stanford, California, United States
Elliot K. Canfield-Dafilou

Researcher
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University
Stanford, California, United States
Steve Barnett

Producer
Barnett Music Productions
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Preston Smith

Recording, Mixing, Mastering Engineer
Perfect Record
Mendota Heights, Minnesota, United States

Acoustics are integral to the performance of music, affecting the tempo, phrasing, pitch contours, among a myriad of performance choices. Particularly in reverberant spaces, such as Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, musicians so thoroughly interact with the space that it becomes another instrument. Live simulation of acoustics in a studio setting allows recording of musical performances in spaces which are inaccessible or no longer exist. Here, we adapt these technologies to capture musical performances in a live simulated acoustic, and describe the recording and post-production of "Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia" by Cappella Romana, for which we designed and synthesized the virtual acoustics, including positioning performers in the nave and rendering the immersive acoustic energy reflected from the main dome and colonnades.