Choir

Did any of you good ppl ever recorded a 25 ppl choir(and how did you do that)?

Any specific placing?

There's a few possible configurations you can use with two condensers.

XY:
http://www.recording-micr...oincident-stereo.shtml

AB:
http://www.recording-micr...ced-omnis-stereo.shtml

For larger groups with a pretty balanced stereo image (like choirs), I am a big fan of Mid Side:

http://www.recording-micr.../Mid-Side-stereo.shtml

As for distance, you can generally guarantee a good clean recording with (mostly) intelligible silibance with the mics positioned high at the front of the stage. Depending on the room, you may want to experiment with different locations or recording from several positions at once.

Reegs

Never mic'd a choir, but I'd be tempted to use omnis for the ambiance. But it would depend on a) if the room sounds good and b) if there is an audience.

In an empty church or auditorium, the reverberation times might be too long without an audience to soak up reflections. But a large audience is going to contribute chair squeaks, coughs and such. Either extreme would seem to call for a cardioid pattern.

If I were doing it for the first time, I'd probably take no chances and put up 2 or 3 pairs (a pair of omnis and a pair of cardiods, both x/y and spaced) plus a pair of distant room mics and sort them all out later, at mix time.

Also, don't forget the soloists. There should be a spot mic for that. You don't have to use it if it turns out the choir is good enough to self-balance. But I'd hate to get home and realize the soloists weren't cutting through the mix.

Have done a choir of about 15 people in not-the-best-room. I used a pair of condenser mics spaced about 3 feet apart. With 15 pairs of headphones and about 6 overdubs (to make the choir sound bigger) there was some click leakage and a bit of leakage from the altos (hitting high notes) from the phones as well. I was able to cancel most of these problems in the mix by flipping phase on half the takes. The click and leakage issues ended up cancelling via phase flipping. It also got rid of much of the unflattering acoustics as well. I used channel tools plugin to swap channels so that basses and altos appeared across the entire stereo image. I also pushed the sides a bit and took the center image down a touch. A bit of EQ and ambience and it all turned out pretty well. I hope to post this song in a few days.

I think acoustics are way more important than the type of microphones you're using. Make sure you aren't recording a choir in a conference room with a low ceiling. Try with a small church. Don't forget to tell the priest/minister to switch the PA system off or you'll always wonder where the hell that buzz you sometimes hear on your recording came from... (learned the hard way...)

Thanks!

Different opinions, I guess experimenting is the way to go.

I have a pair of Samson C01's(not the best, I know, but they did a good job so far).
Is it better to place them at "mouth-height"?

Shotgun mics are the norm because there made for distant recording.

Thanks for the "moved mail" CW, makes it easier to find your own posts




Can anyone point me in the right direction regarding normal priced omnis?

Before I was into this at all, a choir I was in made some recordings and I remember about 8 mics in different places. Most of them seemed to be pencil shaped.

And as someone else said, most of them seemed to be up overhead and pointing down. No idea why.

Not that its the only way to do I guess.

I can understand whay it might be good to have several options to blend the sound afterwards.

But apart from the difficulty of getting your hands on more mics and recording channels obviously you multiply up the time to audition and mix everything. Maybe the people who recorded us were experiened isn that scenario. I expect having more microphones and levels and sounds to check on the day adds stress to the actual recording process. You have to be really on the ball. No time to mess about with mic placing and try things cos the choir gets tired and impatient if you keep them waiting. A tired bored choir could do more to harm the sound of the overall recording than any amount of studio tricks.

I remember we were all excited and eager at the start of the day...but pretty bored and fed up after being on our feet all day..and hearing..."can we just try that bit again..I think someone came in too early"

Maybe its best to keep it simple so you get the project finished.

FWIW:  EastWest QL Symphony Choirs are recorded 3-fold:

1) Stereo close mics: close as possible to the choir
2) Stereo stage mics: on stage but wider (more ambience and blending)
3) Stereo surround mics: at back of auditorium ... for maximum natural ambiance and/or decay.

They are, doubtless, Cardioid or hyper-cardiod.  Is there that much difference between the 3.  Not a whole lot (to my ears) ... probably because the mics were hyper-cardiod and received the most direct sounds!

OTOH: I'm using EWQL symphony choirs extensively of late and stage mics oft suffice for me.

It may be argued that bass choir vocs sound better close up (for supposedly less reverb) ... but again, the cardiod pattern (as mentioned by many here) makes that not necessary (for my ears).