Suggestions on miking a 32 piece gospel choir

[dancheung]

Just thought I would ask around about Mic suggestions, placement, and techniques.

Thanks in advance,
Dan

[Guy Staley]

Are talking studio or location?

[dancheung]

In the studio, adecent size live room, I was thinking a stereo pair, ie. Earthworks and a large diaphragm condensor, but I just wanted to see what others thought.
Thanks Again,
Dan

[tptman]

Anybody seen the Bruce Swedien video?- For backgrounds on a Michael Jackson song, He mics a gospel choir with an XY pair of ATs set to figure 8 in the middle of the studio, with the choir standing in a circle around the mics. The choir is a little smaller than yoursm I think 16. He has the choir do one pass with everyone singing, then seperate passes with the four parts singing by themselves (still in the same place). He then overdubs the solo parts with a single large diaphragm. Its a really interesting video with some cool tips.

Peter

[Doug Ring]

Depends on the size and shape of your room. If there's space to get the choir and a stereo mic arranged in an equilateral triangle, you should be okay to go that route. If you've only space to get the choir in two lines, a stereo pair may not pick up the singers at the edge, so spaced omnis may be the way to go. Or the figure-of-eight in the middle approach sounds good (haven't tried that myself) for a square room.

Whatever you choose, listen to the choir first to make sure no one singer dominates, and be prepared to move them about if one does. From many years of recording church congregations, we used to call this the "Pink Hat Effect", because the dominant voice was nearly always a lady in a pink hat who was a leading light in the local amateur dramatic group or some such.

[dancheung]

Thanks for the suggestions guys

Dan

[Guy Staley]

I did several choirs this last summer, and tried many approaches. The best sounding tracks were done using a pair of Royer R121 in a ORTF pair about 6-7 feet high. 50 voice choir was on two sets of risers, arranged in a semi-circle around the mics. Distance from choir to mics was aproximately 10 feet.

Also had very nice results from a pair of KM84's in an x-y array. Obviously much brighter sounding that the Royers, but certainly not obnoxious. Really depends on the nature of the music and backing tracks, if any.

I also used the Bruce Swedien technique above, but found I prefered the single stereo tracks had better imaging and spaciousness than the multi-pass/layered tracks. YMMV!

[Guy Staley]

Sorry, I erroneously stated "ORTF" in my previous reply, when I meant to say "Blumlein". Just so as not to confuse anybody!