With their home serving as a pastoral, inspirational setting, Christian music duo Jonathan and Melissa Helser chose to record their latest live worship album — entitled Land I’m Livin’ In — at their North Carolina farm alongside family and friends, with Brad King, the engineer and co-owner of worship sound production studio Creak Music who did the recording and mixing work, capturing vocal and instrument sound with a range of microphones from DPA.
“I’ve loved every [DPA] mic I’ve ever used,” he says. “So, for this project, we started chatting with DPA about what to use, and we put together a whole list, which turned out great. Among the many benefits of using DPA is the small form-factor of the mics.”
King employed the d:facto 4018V vocal mics for each of the Helsers’ vocals, 2011C twin diaphragm cardioids on kick and snare, 4099 CORE instrument mics on toms and hi-hats, 4011A cardioids for drum overheads, and a pair of stereo 4099s on piano. To help fight the reverb and pick up the overall sound and ambience of the room, King also deployed a pair of 4006A omnidirectional mics overhead.
“The d:facto is amazing,” King says. “It is one of those microphones that you just kind of start using and don’t have to do much to it. We’ve used that mic in the studio a bunch. For the right singer, it just shines on their voice. It sounds really great.” The mics also helped King obtain isolated vocals in the wide open space, comprised of concrete floors, drywall, windows and a metal ceiling, which all reflected sound, despite attempts at enhancing the sound reinforcement and adding acoustical treatment.
The ability to hide the variety of mics also proved important during the album simultaneous video recording, which had an audience of about 70 people, to add to the live feeling. “When you’re capturing a crowd, you don’t want the video to just have a bunch of mic stands and cables,” explains King. “Being able to hide the microphones contributed so much to the energy and vibe of the environment while we were recording. It didn’t feel so much like a traditional studio recording, it felt like an experience.”
King installed 4006As to the outer edge of a second-floor loft space overlooking the large, rectangular main room of the barn. “Those mics helped us attain a different, more even sound in the space,” he continues. “Being able to get the room a little more balanced was amazing. I love the capsule that comes on the 4006A; it gives a flatter response, which is really nice. Having the tight polar pattern and pickup of the DPA mics saved this project. Had we been using anything else, there would have been so much bleed. We would have had to overdub everything. Instead, we just sent the whole project to mix.”
Best known for their 2016 album Beautiful Surrender, which peaked on The Billboard 200 at No. 54, Christian Albums at No. 1 and Canadian Albums at No. 67, Jonathan and Melissa Helser have been recording together since 2013. Their new live album, The Land I’m Livin’ In, is available on all major streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube and Pandora.
Creak Music was founded by Brad King, David Leonard and Seth Talley. The team has worked with worship artists such as NeedToBreathe, Baldwin, Brandon Lake, Maverick City, Brandon Heath and Cody Carnes, among others. The trio also produced their own instrumental cover music album commissioned by Integrity Music.
