Live-streamed liturgy: what about music?

[blackthorn fairy]

That all sounds very complicated Keitha - but where I have 'been' over this Easter, the officiating clergy have done their own singing - and very competently I should add. I'm happy with that.

[FrGareth]

I am now a member of Sion Community and am locked in with 9 other community members in our house in Coventry. The community includes 3 guitarists,1 keyboard player and a cahon enthusiast! We have a 10-channel mixing desk connected to our streaming computer via a Komplete-1 Audio-to-USB interface. The spoken voice is transmitted very clearly, but we have very poor quality for the music pickup in our YouTube streams. Can anyone out there suggest how we can improve our music quality? I can't post our streams publicly as Birmingham Archdiocese has asked us to be discreet about being a large community able to have Mass together but I can share a link privately with any forum member who might be able to advise on sound quality...

[sjgc]

Hi everyone,

At the moment in our parish we are publishing a running order with video sermon, readings and links to nice YouTube versions of appropriate music (hymns, Gloria etc). People are responding that they found it useful.

We are going to experiment with a live streamed Mass on Zoom shortly and we may have one person singing/playing (everyone else on mute and singing to themselves or listening). Looking at the comments above, it definitely looks like we should do a dry run to see if we run into the same challenges about sound quality and reverb. We already know it has to be everyone on mute apart from the lead person at the time. I'll let you know how we get on. We might start with speech only, to be determined.

At a tangent to that, I have become a bit of a digital nomad in this covid-19 crisis and happened upon online events hosted by catholic composers in the US and it got me thinking. I was wondering if any catholic composers / musicians in the UK are doing any online events, either regularly or as a one-off? Do you know of any? The things I have seen in the US range from daily prayer with scripture and song to sung devotion to a concert with chat.

Sean

[sjgc]

I am now a member of Sion Community and am locked in with 9 other community members in our house in Coventry. The community includes 3 guitarists,1 keyboard player and a cahon enthusiast! We have a 10-channel mixing desk connected to our streaming computer via a Komplete-1 Audio-to-USB interface. The spoken voice is transmitted very clearly, but we have very poor quality for the music pickup in our YouTube streams. Can anyone out there suggest how we can improve our music quality? I can't post our streams publicly as Birmingham Archdiocese has asked us to be discreet about being a large community able to have Mass together but I can share a link privately with any forum member who might be able to advise on sound quality...

Hello Fr Gareth, I did see one professional musician (solo performer) who said that, despite having pro audio recording equipment - and trying different mikes etc - she found that her iphone 11 gave the best sound quality for a webcast (facebook live). Strange but true. As a listener, the quality was acceptable, piano a little loud. Would be trickier with a group I am sure.

[justMary]

I was wondering if any catholic composers / musicians in the UK are doing any online events, either regularly or as a one-off? Do you know of any?

Jo Boyce is. https://www.facebook.com/joboycemusic

[Southern Comfort]

Hi everyone,

At the moment in our parish we are publishing a running order with video sermon, readings and links to nice YouTube versions of appropriate music (hymns, Gloria etc). People are responding that they found it useful.

We are going to experiment with a live streamed Mass on Zoom shortly and we may have one person singing/playing (everyone else on mute and singing to themselves or listening). Looking at the comments above, it definitely looks like we should do a dry run to see if we run into the same challenges about sound quality and reverb. We already know it has to be everyone on mute apart from the lead person at the time. I'll let you know how we get on. We might start with speech only, to be determined.

At a tangent to that, I have become a bit of a digital nomad in this covid-19 crisis and happened upon online events hosted by catholic composers in the US and it got me thinking. I was wondering if any catholic composers / musicians in the UK are doing any online events, either regularly or as a one-off? Do you know of any? The things I have seen in the US range from daily prayer with scripture and song to sung devotion to a concert with chat.

Sean

Zoom is incredibly unsatisfactory for live streaming, unless you are prepared to do a lot of fiddling about, although it may be better than nothing. Sound quality is not good, either.

Regarding the Catholic composers in the US, be aware that some of their offerings are in the cause of self-promotion rather than prayer, which has dissuaded some UK composers from trying to do the same. (The parish streams, of which there are many, are different.) You'd do better to tune in to the Taizé stream or similar, IMHO.

[sjgc]

Zoom is incredibly unsatisfactory for live streaming, unless you are prepared to do a lot of fiddling about, although it may be better than nothing. Sound quality is not good, either.

Regarding the Catholic composers in the US, be aware that some of their offerings are in the cause of self-promotion rather than prayer, which has dissuaded some UK composers from trying to do the same. (The parish streams, of which there are many, are different.) You'd do better to tune in to the Taizé stream or similar, IMHO.

The Taize stream is a really good alert - thank you, I hadn't thought of that. I see you can replay the prayer time if you miss it live and it is great that they are a community of quite a number and there is plenty of singing. Others I know recommend matins etc from Worth Abbey, which is live on youtube and again it is inspiring to hear a community.

Re the American composers, yes, it is a fair point that the events do vary and include prayer and reflection in different measure as well as singing of songs (written in many cases by the presenter). I think it is pretty clear after a few minutes what type of event it is and one can choose to attend or not. I was looking for any similar or different inspiration closer to home, perhaps a little more intimate than a broadcast from an empty church, though that can be very prayerful.

Not sure what to try for live streaming with interaction - if not Zoom ? I assume Skype etc suffer from similar issues. Is there any particular fiddling about on Zoom that is worth trying or essential?

Thanks.

[Nick Baty]

If not Zoom ? I assume Skype etc suffer from similar issues. Is there any particular fiddling about on Zoom that is worth trying or essential?

Been working on Zoom for the last three weeks. Yesterday attended three-two-hour team meetings. Straightfoward. No need to download specific software, no fiddling at all – just join in. Excellent! Only downside is that, unless you pay, you're limited to 40 minutes,

[alan29]

If not Zoom ? I assume Skype etc suffer from similar issues. Is there any particular fiddling about on Zoom that is worth trying or essential?

Been working on Zoom for the last three weeks. Yesterday attended three-two-hour team meetings. Straightfoward. No need to download specific software, no fiddling at all – just join in. Excellent! Only downside is that, unless you pay, you're limited to 40 minutes,

When it comes to meetings some may see a 40 minute limit as a blessing.

[Southern Comfort]

If not Zoom ? I assume Skype etc suffer from similar issues. Is there any particular fiddling about on Zoom that is worth trying or essential?

Been working on Zoom for the last three weeks. Yesterday attended three-two-hour team meetings. Straightfoward. No need to download specific software, no fiddling at all – just join in. Excellent! Only downside is that, unless you pay, you're limited to 40 minutes,

Many of us have been using Zoom and other similar tools for meetings, etc. The problem is that you can't synchronise, so choral singing requires a large amount of fiddling about to get voices together in correct ensemble. This basically means that you can't do it live, only as a recording.

[Southern Comfort]

Others I know recommend matins etc from Worth Abbey, which is live on youtube and again it is inspiring to hear a community.

Other monastic communities streaming include Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire and Minster Abbey in Kent.

[sjgc]

I was wondering if any catholic composers / musicians in the UK are doing any online events, either regularly or as a one-off? Do you know of any?

Jo Boyce is. https://www.facebook.com/joboycemusic

Thank you, justMary

[sjgc]

If not Zoom ? I assume Skype etc suffer from similar issues. Is there any particular fiddling about on Zoom that is worth trying or essential?

Been working on Zoom for the last three weeks. Yesterday attended three-two-hour team meetings. Straightfoward. No need to download specific software, no fiddling at all – just join in. Excellent! Only downside is that, unless you pay, you're limited to 40 minutes,

Many of us have been using Zoom and other similar tools for meetings, etc. The problem is that you can't synchronise, so choral singing requires a large amount of fiddling about to get voices together in correct ensemble. This basically means that you can't do it live, only as a recording.

Hi everyone, zoom in particular has good noise suppression but that means it can interpret an instrument as background noise to be suppressed rather than accompaniment to be allowed through. There is a setting on zoom that music teachers use to allow original sound rather than zoom-filtered. The meeting owner has to permit it and the particular user (only) has to then select it. I found this link useful. https://www.ericheidbreder.com/post/the ... structions

Take care everyone,
Sean

[Nick Baty]

Only downside is that, unless you pay, you're limited to 40 minutes,

UPDATE: If you have an academic email address, the time limit is lifted!

[John Ainslie]

A lot of the live-streamed Masses are being transmitted via churchservices.tv. I visited two yesterday. One stalled in a permanent loop, but both showed integration of pre-recorded music into the live-streamed Mass. One exhibited its One License licence number, and indeed some of the insertions were evidently provided by American recordings, judging from both the accents of the singers and the version of the Responsorial Psalm being used. Some outputs sounded more British. The lone priest happily sang along with the music, so it was clearly audible to him.

I'm intrigued to know how this is done. Presumably it needs an off-site technician to mix the inputs. Parish-based or where? With what skills?