[doulos]

It's been a few years ago but I've had much experience with the choir setting as well. My experience was with a group three times as large but the basics are still the same. I too believe that when it all comes down to the bottom line, it proves to be just a matter of taste. However, there are some tried and true methods that will work to a good degree every time.

Your group of high school choir members are going to perform better if they are allowed to stay in their comfort zone. That would be in the way that they are used to singing. You will not have them in a studio environment so don't worry about trying to create one. If it were me, I would do just exactly as you mentioned. Put a mic with each section and use the other for overhead or even just a room mic positioned away from the other four mics. You're after the room ambience from this mic and you can bring it back into the mix just a touch to ad depth to the whole thing. AS for the four main mics,don't worry about one section bleeding into the other because they will. But believe me, if you put each mic directed at its respective secton and place it in front and dead center of its section, the bleed from one section to the next will be minimum and besides, a little bleed through is what makes a choir sound like they do...think about it. You have 16 voices singing next to each other in a room. You will definitely have enough of each section per track to do all the processing and mixing you desire. The name of the game is capturing the natural sound of the group. You'll be happy with the results if you just think of the natural simplicity. They use to record with much less technology than you will be bringing to the show so let the singers have fun and you do the same.

JC