Sora (aka Andrea Hunt) is a Calgary-based singer whose influences include pretty much every woman with a magnificent voice in the past 20 years. And she fits right in their company. As a youngster she toured with Calgary Youth Orchestra and the Calgary Fiddlers so she is at home both in the studio and on the road (although these days she pretty much sticks close to home). We started by talking with her about how a song moves from the page to finished "product."

"All my songs start at my piano. I play almost every day, and often just play around with melody lines, chord progressions and just random vocalizing. I am pretty low tech, but do like to hear what I am working on, so I have taken to simply recording them on my little Creative Zen mp3 player," says Sora. "The sound quality is poor but it's quick and it's easy and I always have it hanging around my piano. Because I don't have hours every day to dedicate to songwriting, recording little snippets of lines, hooks and notes throughout the day helps me to keep a cohesive progression of the song in my head. I can remember where my head was, where I was going with the song and listen at any time."

She says that at any given time she has hundreds of "30 second" recordings on her computer. She takes the recorder with her everywhere when she is really thinking about a song -- and works on parts so she can recall them later and get serious. She compares how she collects the initial sounds to how she collects lyrics on scraps of paper, store receipts and journals strewn through her house.

"Eventually though, they all get written out properly on my computer in Allegro. At this point, I am working with a producer, Douglas Romanow of Fire Escape Recording in Toronto, and I end up sending him my initial recordings with voice and chords done on the piano. Sometimes I also send MIDI files which I create in Allegro. From there, Doug and I usually create a click track in Pro Tools and start to record scratch vocals. The vocals are done on the Lawson L47 mic, which is a reproduction of the Neuman U47 with a Neve 1272 pre-amp run into a DBX 165A compressor. Then comes the fun part! The layering of instruments and sounds and finally the recording of the final vocals!"

She says that when she first started working with Romanow, they tried several microphones for recording vocals but the L47 seemed the best fit for her voice. The L47 is a solid state mic and sells for just under $1,000.

"I have a powerful, strong, high set voice and I do really like the way my voice sounds through that mic, it's clear and seems to capture the nuances of expression, especially in my higher range," she says. "For live performances, I am in the process of purchasing a mic, and still am in the research stage."

Different microphones suit different vocalists. It depends on the voice. It depends on the music. It depends on a whole bunch of things. Try out as many mics as you can and do the research. You may find a cheaper mic suits you best.

Sora says that she actually loves to sing live without any microphone at all (which is not an option for most vocalists).

"In a smaller venue, it feels more intimate to do so, and because my voice carries well, up to this point I almost always sing unamplified. I have sung a number of gigs miked, and I always find that when I sing live with a mic, I have to rely on creating my sound intuitively, through the memory of the muscles I use rather than on sound feedback, which can range from great, to terrible, depending on the setup," says Sora. "One gig I sung at, the stage was right beside this flowing water wall, and the sound of the water was so loud that even though the crowd could hear me, because I was miked, I could barely hear myself singing. "

Many, less well-mannered singers might have said something like; "Hey, Can we get this waterfall turned off you damn hippies." And Sora has the nerve to call herself a Diva!

She does note a danger, one that might arise with singing sans microphone -- pushing your voice too far and causing damage.

"So rather than pushing, it's better to just focus on the muscles creating the sound. In a studio, of course, you can adjust the levels you are hearing through your earphones and get immediate feedback as to the sound quality. Studio mics seem to pick up everything, they are so sensitive!" she says. "In that way, I feel that as a singer, I need to be more focused on creating nuances of sound and expression in the studio. Live there is always ambient noise that seems to drown out some of the subtleties in the voice, so my voice usually ends up a bit bigger live. In a studio, you can play around, have fun and just experiment, because you can get that immediate feedback through the playback. Live, you just have to trust yourself and your voice. I always feel that I have more control in the studio, because I can hear for myself what my voice is sounding like on the playback and make any adjustments."

Sora has an EP, Light available now from her website. She is also performing with pianist Frank Horvat at a recital he is putting on in Calgary at the Scarboro United Church on June 20. The next day Sora is performing at the Water Valley Celtic Music Festival. In July she appears a the Pembina River Nights Festival. A full length CD is also in the works for 2009.

More with Sora soon.