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Old 25th April 2008   #7
joelpatterson
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I'd want to aim for separating the various factions as much as possible-- like ideally everyone was facing outward from a common circle, and then each group/player is mic'd as close as reasonable.

If you had the choir on the back side of the piano, opposite the open lid, they could still certainly "hear" the piano okay, but hopefully the choir mics and the piano mics could have some degree of separation? Not washing and spilling and phasing all into one another? Similarly, the electric guitar amp could be angled outward another way, or set further off-- the guitar player will be able to "hear" the ensemble and the part he (or she) is playing, but the mic at the amp won't "hear" a blurry mess of everything else all mixed together. If this isn't an improv, and the group is fairly well rehearsed, they could probably tolerate a little distancing for the sake of a clear, mixable multi-track. Not opposite ends of the room, just spread out some.

If they're set up like a performance, all facing front, you risk ending up like I did one time-- a boisterous performance of Paul Winter's Earth Mass, which is piano, drumkit, bass, choir and tenor sax... even after I turned the sax mic OFF, it was STILL too loud, just the bleed into everyone else's mic's!
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