Choirs and sound systems

My church has an AXIOM personal monitoring system for the musicians. I use a wireless receiver and a small set of headphones. I don't how it sounds out front but I can mix up to 16 channels in my phones and it sounds nice. Each musician can mix anything he wants.

Thanks for those insights.
Whenever possible the band is placed to the side and slightly in front of the choir and we're slowly coming to the realisation that amps have to be ditched (the bassist doesn't like that at all!)
At the moment each of the 5 sections in the choir has a mic ; that sems to be too many. Also 3 mics front stage for the soloists.
The plan is to have a day in a large auditorium experimenting with different configurations .
Gareth

You are not alone in this problem. And there is no easy solution. Using the Axiom system is, I think, a step in the right direction. I play in my church orchestra. And there are more than 16 players that "need" the personal monitoring. We have all the horns, flutes, and other misc instruments that an orchestra has, including piano, synth, e-drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar. So naturally some of us are w/o personal monitoring. The bass player and I share a floor monitor which has primarilly drums, and has at times, the mics from the worship team & music minister. (we rely on the sound "tech" to get it right......)

Since we have horns, and other loud instruments....we abandoned the concept of "quiet stage". We rely on the musicians maintaining a reasonable volume level, and since most of us are experienced musicians, that is not an issue.

Our issue is hearing the choir, who are directly behind us. Not so much us...but the mixer, and the audience....and more importantly, in the recorded mix, since we are now recording the services to burn CD's. They have started using curved shields with foam, on the choir mics, to limit the sound from the rear of the mic, since the choir mics sit just inches behind our chairs.

The best advice is to get into that big room and be prepared to work. Have all the equipment on site you think you might need. I have read alot about the Axiom system and how it can be used in many different configurations. You don't necessarilly have to have a "silent stage" with it. You can opt to send the signal to the powered Hot Spot type of speakers. If you placed 10 or so... Hot Spots in front of the choir..with a band musical feed...they could hear the band easily...at a relatively low volume level. (The ones we used had volume controls on them)
Use directional mics in front of the choir as well. Use enough mics pointed at the singers and as close as is resonable to pick them up in groups. This way mics are not pointed directly at the hot spots so the cross talk is kept low.
Placing a hot spot or headphones for each band member would also give you the option of band & choir in the mix. I understand the bass player's aversion to headphones....I too hate them. I want to hear the room. Since we have more than 16 people "needing" them, I volunteered to "give mine up" so that someone else could hear.

I feel your pain about playing rooms that have massive reverb problems. The key to success I think will be found in the Axiom system and the use of Hot Spots and headphones for monitoring. This will allow all to hear at a lower volume.

Good luck.

I don't know all the in's and out's of the Axiom system or exactly how it's connected, since I'm not involved with the sound techs. They have it all connected and I know the band thinks it works well.

I just thought I'd mention also that I have heard really great reviews about another system, however, and I've seen it being used but have not had the chance to discuss it thoroughly with those using it. the bose L1 or L2 systems. check out this thread where someone had seen it being used and went and bought a system based on that:
http://forum.christiansongwriters.org/viewtopic.php?t=10285&highlight=bose

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LOL, Mac!

Yeah, I never thought I'd be even psuedo endorsing Bose, but these things seem to work pretty well from the reports I've heard of guys using them.