Tre Sheppard Tracks the African Children’s Choir with Apollo and UAD Plug-Ins

After 12 years as the frontman of the critically acclaimed rock and roll band, Onehundredhours, Tre Sheppard now works as a producer, songwriter, and mix engineer from his private studio, Zero: Hour, based on the coast of Northern Ireland. Born and raised in the Deep South of the USA, Sheppard has lived and worked in the UK for the past 20 years. He co-found EngageHIV, a charity working to alleviate extreme poverty and HIV in Africa more than ten years ago.

Sheppard was nominated for a Dove Award in 2011, and his recent projects have been shortlisted for the NI Music Prize in 2013 and 2014 and nominated for "Best UK Album" and the "Horizon" award at the 2014 BCM Awards. He is signed to Capitol music publishing and he's currently producing and writing a series of albums for the world renowned African Children's Choir. Here, Sheppard details how he used the Apollo audio interface and UAD Powered Plug-Ins on location just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa to track the African Children’s Choir latest album, Emmanuel — An African Christmas.

This was taken the day before I left for Africa on my new Apollo QUAD’s very first session! I was tracking 95 voices for the Belfast Community Gospel Choir. I used the exact same setup in South Africa.

My setup was small — an Apollo QUAD interface and a Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5024. My mics were a Royer SF-12 Stereo Ribbon Microphone and two Beyerdynamic MC 930s as outriggers. Everything fits in two normal size suitcases (one is a flight case) including my clothes — and I flew commercial with no extra charges!

The whole system ran without a single hitch off of an 11" MacBook Air with 8 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD drive. We recorded to a Thunderbolt drive hanging off the extension port of the Apollo. Not an SSD drive, just a normal 7200 RPM Thunderbolt drive.

This is our setup for the first night in Africa. I didn't like the way the room sounded, and that hanging lamp was in the way,so we sent the kids out to have fun and I rearranged the room.

Here are the kids singing in the new setup — mattress studio! This setup was much better sonically.

For monitoring, I used Ultimate Ear UE Custom Reference in-ear monitors. They provide the flattest response, and as I have had to be in the room, I needed as much isolation as possible to hear what the mics are getting without hearing the room.

For the kids in the choir, I used "Silent Disco" wireless headphones. Generally I rent enough for all of the kids and chaperones, then run them a mix so that they can hear the tracks, click, cue notes, etc. And, I don't have to deal with 35 headphone cables!

One of the best things about the Apollo for me is the multiple monitoring options. Using the UAD Console app was perfect for this project. I had a small headphone amp that I used to power my in-ears off the main monitor inputs, and I used Headphone 1 for the conductor, and Headphone 2 for the kid’s headphones. I setup a talkback mic that, again using the UAD Console app, I was able to speak to everyone, or just the conductor. With Console’s virtual outputs, as well as the Apollo QUAD’s multiple physical outputs, it could not have been easier.

Those four foam pieces hold the two units in my small flight case that can be locked and checked for travel.

Again, you can see the setup basically here with the new room angle. It's much darker because we took the hanging lamp down. The 5024 is on two pieces of foam allowing the Apollo to vent, and the Apollo is on two more beneath for the same purpose. Those four foam pieces hold the two units in my small flight case that can be locked and checked for travel.

Here's the long view of the room with my assistant and arranger Ian who conducted the choir at his station and my small setup to the right.

When tracking vocals, I used the silver Teletronix LA-2A limiter from the Teletronix® LA-2A Classic Leveler Collection for a small amount of compression on the way in.

Here is a rough field mix I made for the kids of the track, “Baba Bambuela.” It has some RealVerb Pro Custom Room Modeler plug-in on it, as well as a touch of the SSL G Series Bus Compressor plug-in on the choir.

Here are the boys tracking drums for the track “Wahamba Nathi.” The mattress helped me tame the low-end nicely.

I used the 1176 Rev E from the 1176 Classic Limiter Plug-In Collection for compression on the way in, and all of the drums and percussion are played by the kids.

Here I am explaining some drum edits to the boys. Sanele, the young guy in the yellow shirt, actually helped me edit. One of my main goals with this project is to develop a few producers and engineers from kids in the African Children's Choir so we can setup a studio permanently in Uganda and South Africa and the older ACC kids can track the group. The Apollo is the ideal interface for this.

Here is a rough mix of the entire track, “Wahamba Nathi."