How to mic singing groups? « Videomaker Community Forums

compusolver
Member

Help! I need mic advice -

We're going to be shooting several church choirs singing carols. This will be inside the church, without an audience, under fairly controlled conditions.

I want to record in stereo. I've got an Azden shotgun mic, handheld mics and lapel mics and an XLR adapter that will allow two inputs.

I was thinking of using the shotgun aimed slightly toward one side, a handheld near the other side, the other handheld near the piano/organ and lapels on any soloists. I have four digital cams to catch audio and an analog Canon L2 with shotgun, if needed.

Should I buy new mics? What kind? (max budget for new mics is around $400)

- Thanks & Merry Christmas!

Posted 6 years ago #
Rocktooloud
Member

Will there be house sound or no?

I've found that using a shotgun mic mounted on my camera gives really good results. It might be surprising, but choirs are pretty loud. Just be sure to use a good shockmount so you don't get any rattling sound on your audio track.

Merry Christmas to you too, Hank!

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Thanks, Rock. I learned that shock mount lesson some time back. After thinking about this, I'm leaning toward going with two shotguns - that handheld isn't worth a hoot when more than twelve inches away.

I can't count on house sound because I'm going to be shooting at two dozen different churches. I need consistancy, and therefore need to use my own equipment.

Posted 6 years ago #
Rocktooloud
Member

I can't count on house sound because I'm going to be shooting at two dozen different churches. I need consistancy, and therefore need to use my own equipment.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. What I meant to say was does the churches have like a speaker system that the choirs will be singing through? This would amplify the sound and therefore make it easier to pick up.

Either way though, you should be just fine. :D

Posted 6 years ago #
Tom Scratch
Member

Hi Mr. C,
Sounds like an awesome project requiring stamina, nerves of steel, no flat tires, technical agility, and a little luck.
Here are some things off the top of my head:
Churches are not recording studios. The sweet spot may be far away from where the singers are located. Consider a mike where the best sound is in the room, which could be the far corner.
Rush down to Home Depot and buy up their stock of duct tape.
Your plan is to record 4/5 tracks of sound with your cams? Then mix those 24 sets of 4 tracks on your NLE?
If it were possible, you could save some time and trouble if you were able to do some mixing on site. There are some pretty good audio mixers out there in the $400 to $500 range (or you might be able to rent), with 3-4 mike inputs. After the second or third performance, you would be doing live mixing with ease.
You could run your mikes into the mixer with the mixed audio going out to one cam. If you were to double mike the talent (two mikes left, two right..) you could run direct mike feeds into the remaining 3 or 4 cams, per your present plan. You would need more mikes (rent?), but with double miking you could have it both ways, and potentially save many hours of mxing in the studio later.
It's not like you have a couple weeks to get ready for this! As you are loading your truck, happy holiday thoughts!
REGARDS ... TOM 8)

Posted 6 years ago #
SFChuck
Member

I'll give you a serious answer...

Many years ago I had to record an 80-voice choir singing Handel's Messiah standing in front of the pipe chambers of a huge pipe organ. Along with that, there was a harpsichord and a cello. I did it with two mics.

One was centered 8-10 feet in front of the choir, the other centered between the harpsichord and the cello, maybe 3-4 feet away from each. It was a monaural recording. If I'd been recording in stereo, I'd have used two cardioid mics for the choir mounted near each other and angled about 30 degrees apart.

My results weren't recording studio quality but sounded fine when replayed on an AM radio station.

Surprisingly, the biggest problem was the soprano voices, not the pipe organ. I had to "ride gain" on loud soprano passages or the audio would have been driven into distortion. While loud organ passages peaked in the red, distortion was not an issue.

For your project, without an audience to "soak up" some of the audio standing waves, you're likely to get a lot of reverberation.

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Thanks for the help, everyone.

I've got time to do this, but considering the traveling and logistics, I'll need every bit of it. We shot the Christmas displays throughout the State of Oklahoma during December. We've got the first six months of 2006 to shoot and record the choirs.

I've got two shotguns, two omni's and two lavs. Can omni's be placed ten feet from the singers? I'd have thought they would need to be closer, but then I have absolutely no experience in recording singing groups.

Because we'll be in dozens of different churches and we probably won't have the ability to come back and reshoot, I don't want to rely on house sound or any equipment other than my own.

Posted 6 years ago #
SFChuck
Member

compusolver Wrote:
Can omni's be placed ten feet from the singers? I'd have thought they would need to be closer...

It depends on the microphone. Some mics are only good for closeup work, such as those designed mainly for vocalists. Others are more sensitive and can pick up sound over a greater distance. Experiment and see what works.

The technique for using omni-directional mics to record stereo is different from using cardioids. With omnis, you will need to physically separate them by some amount of distance. Your best bet would be to experiment with the mics you have to find the optimal separation to get good stereo results. Under the best of conditions, it may not be as good as you could achieve with cardioids.

Posted 6 years ago #