Well, here it is!

After lots of mastering and graphics work, you can now buy the CD and listen to some samples on my website.

Conclusions! #1

My justification for going with a computer-based setup was, in retrospect, a flawed one. I wanted a system that would be useful in many situations before and after the trip. Alas I paid dearly for this in two departments, a) set-up time and b) weight. 

a) because I assumed that I would have always at least five minutes in the space before the performance began. While this was technically true, the choir sang masses and religious occasions, which means there was a service going on in the space and I had to set everything up really quietly and sometimes incompletely (settling for only one mic, for example). Also, even though Macs are the quickest laptops to come out of any low-power mode, it still took too long to wake up, open Logic, record-arm the right tracks, hit record and have it start writing out to the right files. Furthermore there were too many cables to find and connect - USB for the hard disk, Firewire for the Inspire, and MagSafe from the external battery (if it was needed) all into the computer, plus two mic cables and headphones into the Inspire.

b) Weight - again, I those four devices (computer, interface, storage unit, battery) could have been consolidated into a single appliance weighing no more than one pound and occupying considerably less space. Since the concerts or masses were often combined with all-day walking tours, I found myself having to haul like you see in the "Honor Guard" picture below for an entire day, sometimes asking others to help me. It's fun only for about the first five minutes and then it gets really, really old. 

In conclusion (ha ha), my inventory SHOULD have been: Zoom H4 portable recorder, rechargeable AA batteries and a charger, ziploc bag full of SD cards, mic stands, mic cables, mics.

Well, that was that

Give me a few days to rest up and collect my thoughts (or maybe I'll
do it on the plane) and then I'll do an extensive post-mortem. Suffice
it (for now) to say that almost a year of prep work resulted in the
actual trip going very smoothly in terms of getting everything
recorded, there were some situations that were very specific to what
we were doing that I could not have predicted in advance.

The entire point of this thing is the sharing of knowledge, though, so
now that I've learned some things the hard way, I will write them all
down here to share with you, in the hopes that some of you will be
able to go off in the future and have even better experiences!

Okay, I'm rambling because I'm not awake. It's almost 4am here - we
have to be out of the hotel by 4:45, so I'm up ensuring everything is
packed.

P.S. Unlocked smartphone + prepaid sim card with data package = great
success! Just used my phone as though I were merely another inhabitant
of Italy, because that's all I was as far as Telecom Italia cared.

Honor Guard

On the road ah-ha moment #2:

Mic stands are sometimes overkill and quite indiscrete.

That is, if you're just going to sing a song or two and then get out
(as in, it's not a proper concert where you get permission and set up
time and everything). That's what we're doing today at the Baptistry
in Pisa (insane acoustics, Google it).

The way our tour guide put it was, "anything that looks professional
requires special permission", so I get to try and sound professional
while looking supremely ghettotastic. Sometimes the barriers are
interpersonal and not technical.

To that end, I will be holding (or having someone hold) the two mics
on their stereo crossbar as high as I possibly can. I've left a few
feet of cable outside the bag but coiled and tied up the rest. Also
untaped the USB/Firewire cables and ties them together instead. The
idea is that I can stand with audio interface, hard drive, and
outboard battery in the backpack, laptop in one hand, and holding up
the mics with the other. This is a worst case scenario and my hope is
that I'll get to set everything but the mics down. We'll see.

And yes, I know I will look like I'm an alien trying to contact the
mother ship, or at least a UFO enthusiast. We all must suffer for our
art.

On-the-road Ah ha! #1

Having gone to what I think is a pretty good school, I would expect I
know all about entropy (the Universe's tendency towards disorder). So
you'd think I would have checked whether my mic cables were still
coiled nicely after being baggage on an international flight.

However, I didn't, the result being that the mass I was due to record
this morning began before I had finished setting up because I wasted a
lot of time untangling. I ended up having to sneak around, low to the
ground and silently, to finish setting up. Oops.

Now, however, my gear is safely locked away in a Florentine gold shop
run by the tour guide's old friend (pretty safe place, I figure), so
it's on to an afternoon of ordinary tourist stuff. Ciao!

First concert today

Everything appears to have survived the trip.