Joshua Blair edits Military Wives Choir with Prism Sound

The Military Wives Choir are set to release their first album in March with the help of Joshua Blair and Prism Sound following the success of their Christmas No.1 single, ‘Wherever You Are’.

Formed by Gareth Malone for the BBC TV show The Choir, The Military Wives Choir surpassed Sir Elton John’s 1997 tribute to Princess Diana, Candle in the Wind, to claim the title of the fastest selling UK charity single of the 12st century with ‘Wherever You Are’. The single has now raised over £500,000 for armed forces charities The Royal British Legion and SSAFA Forces Help.

Joshua Blair, an independent producer/engineer who has worked as recording engineer for musicians such as Mark Ronson, Black Lips, Duran Duran and Leona Lewis to name but a few, deployed Prism Sound’s Orpheus FireWire for the choir’s new album, In My Dreams.

“The Orpheus is an integral part of my set up and I use it all the time,” Blair says. “For this project I wanted the quality of Prism Sound converters so that I could really hear what was happening during the edit. One of the main reasons why I initially chose to invest in an Orpheus was because it allowed me to connect to other studios rigs very quickly and without any problems. It also gives me consistent audio quality at home in my project studio or on the road, which was certainly important on this occasion.”

The Military Wives album, recorded over 15 days features five choirs from different locations around the UK. Jon Cohen, who was in charge of the project, used Technical Earth’s SSl-equipped mobile recording truck to travel up and down the country recording each choir in their home location.

“With so many women involved, it was much easier to take the recording to them rather than expect them to come to a studio,” Joshua Blair explains. “It was a fantastic project to work on and we had great fun. We recorded all the soloists through the Orpheus as we wanted the quality of a great studio but on the road.” The album features a brand new track written for the choir by Royal Wedding composer Paul Mealor and a choral reworking of recent Grammy and Brit award winner Adele’s moving ballad, ‘Make You Feel My Love’.