Whether providing righteous optimism or ominous foreboding, there are few sonic sources as rousing and moving as a vocal choir in full flight-and yet for so many modern engineers, capturing the intricate detail and collective power of a vocal ensemble in the open air is still one of the toughest gigs in audio.

MuTech’s own Andy Stewart recently caught up with Australian audio engineer, James Wilkinson, as he takes us through a recent choir date (with a twist) at Melbourne’s Good Shepard Chapel. In this video, James breaks down his ‘pod’ recording technique and the mouth watering selection of gear employed for accurately capturing such a distinct and rich sound source in the modern context (namely SSL and Schoeps Mikrofone). The end results are enough to make your hair stand-on-end!