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#41078 10/29/09 06:15 PM
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Hi guys! I read on one of the posts here some time ago about someone recording a church choir. I can't seem to find the post using the search on here.
At any rate, I have been asked to record a church choir "live" ( about 12 -15 people). All my experience has been in the home studio, and not in a "live" situation like this. Any help on type of mics/how many to use or suggestions in mic placement in general would be a great help. They want to make a CD of about 8 tunes, plus 4 songs from individuals in my studio. I have no problem with the 4, but recording "live" in the church for the choir leaves me kinda stumped. Looking for any suggestions or tips you might have.
Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

P.S.
I have compute using a MAUDIO Delta 1010, Behringer Eurorack Pro 16/Channel Mixing board. I would probably rent mics for the choir recording.

Last edited by senn5; 10/29/09 06:20 PM.
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Set up a bunch of mics, give any soloists a mic, and make sure to have a good stereo pair set up for overall sound.

With the 16 channel mixer and 1010 you should be able to get everybody.

Does the mixer allow using all eight of the 1010's audio ins?
Does the computer?

Set up stereo pair out front, attend a couple rehearsals to test where they should be. Record, listen, try again.. experiment.


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That was Tono asking the question a year or so ago.

My advice: At minimum, use a pair of omni directionals. Space them several feet apart, distance apart should be about 3x as far as the mics are from the choir.

If you can fly some omis up above the choir, follow the same rule; 3x distance between the mics as the distance you fly them above the choir.

-Scott

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Have you thought of using a Zoom H2 or H4 recorder?

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Quote:

Set up a bunch of mics, give any soloists a mic, and make sure to have a good stereo pair set up for overall sound.

With the 16 channel mixer and 1010 you should be able to get everybody.

Does the mixer allow using all eight of the 1010's audio ins?
Does the computer?

Set up stereo pair out front, attend a couple rehearsals to test where they should be. Record, listen, try again.. experiment.



I'm sure rharv knows what he's talking about because he's a very experienced recording and mastering engineer, but just "setting up a bunch of mics" is kind of misleading. you have to be careful about placement of the mics to prevent comb filtering or other problems. make sure to use the 3 to 1 rule of thumb for spaced pair mics where you have your mics set up so that the distance from the source is 1/3 of the distance between the mics. consider also different positionings like using an ORTF or an xy for an additional viewpoint.

when we recorded our church's choir a couple of years ago (~80 members) we used 4 mics. 2 of them were in the center of the choir, facing the choir, at XY position, and just alittle above the choir's heads, pointed slightly down (only slightly) and about 8 feet from the front row of the choir. the other two were a spaced pair. they were pointed toward the center of the choir as far as height wise (for example, the choir had 5 risers and the mics were pointed at the heads of those on the 3rd riser) and they were spaced about 16 feet apart (the choir was about 30 feet wide) and equidistant between the ends of the choir. these were about 5 feet from the front row of the choir.

soloists and ensemblists had their own mics. all instruments were run thru the soundboard and were recorded from there.

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