crowd recording in my living room.....

[gingertimmins]

Hi all. this is my first post and indeed my first visit to these forums for a long time and I'm glad to be back!
I'm working on a song and have all the parts nailed but i think the outro chorus is lacking something.
I've decided on trying to give it the appearance of a large group/ crowd singing the outro with me singing some lead over the top. The track i can most compare this to would be 'dungeoness 'by Athlete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd2ERQT3P7Q

Listen from about 1 min 20 secs in.

Also by athlete 'you know'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-sQCpgBLc&feature=related

listen from about 2mins 20 secs.

Combine the two and this is what I'm trying to achieve.

I've tried several over dubs of my own voice and a few of my mates have given it a go but it's still not sounding right.
Is it a case of literally squeezing a crowd into my living room and getting them at once or using a multitude of different tones/ pitches/ styles from fewer voices?

Any tips gratefully received!!

Many thanks.
Chris

[Nathy]

Yeah, I think the best way to get a live sound like what you want would be to get a crowd of your mates.

xx

[gingertimmins]

ok, if the solution is recording a crowd, any tips on that given that i have very limited mics and pre amps?

[Tomás Mulcahy]

If you double track about 6 people you'll get a similar sound. It's better if they're not all good singers. You only need one mic to record them. Use a figure of 8 pattern, put 3 people on either side, and put the monitor speaker in the null. Pan the two resulting tracks for mock stereo.

It's a good laugh! Most of your time will be spent teaching them what to sing

[Persuazion]

Great fun! And very pleasing when it all comes together.

Can be done quite easily with limited gear.

I'd be tempted to use an x/y pair of SDC's (doesn't *really* matter i guess)

Get as much distance between the mics and the crowd as your room will allow (up high?)

As said above around 5 or six folks in at once would do it.

After each take get everyone to move positions.

Get them to vary the way they do each take. (shouty/Light/high up/low down/gruff/nice etc etc)

Put as many takes as you like together and sit back and listen to that huge crowd you miraculously squeezed into your living room!

No real need for 5 or 6 pairs of cans either. As long as a few of them have a pair the rest should be able to follow okay. And the timing variances etc will only add to the crowd feel.

Great fun!!!

[Tomás Mulcahy]

As long as a few of them have a pair the rest should be able to follow okay.

SHould, but don't in reality. You need a speaker that everyone can hear (hence fig 8 trick) or if there's a lot of non musicians, a leader to conduct. I had to do that once with a football team

[gingertimmins]

thanks everyone, I've got some great ideas now and think I know how I'm going to go about this. I think I'm going to dust off the lap top and record on location in the restaurant I work in, it's large and I'm hoping that the acoustics will add to the feel, rather than my boxy living room dulling the sound. It's also convenient as there's always lot's of staff around who are willing to do just about anything for a few beers!!
anyone think that this is a bad idea??

[Tomás Mulcahy]

I think I'm going to dust off the lap top and record on location in the restaurant I work in

Sounds like a great idea! THe wonders of modern recording gear

Just do test recordings on the laptop in advance, to make sure the software works properly, i.e. do a simulated sesion, where the lappy is writing silent tracks while playing back the guide.