Recording a choir or sorts - Any pointers?

[bigfapbrap]

I plan on recording a few guys(about 10) in someone's living room with a bit of percussion played from them. I don't necessarily want to record instruments individually, just the atmosphere. I want the recording to sound big. Sort of stadium sound rather than just 10 guys. Do you guys reckon Space Designer from Logic 8 or Kontakt's reverb impulse are adequate or should I try the non IR reverbs? What have your experiences been with that stadium "sound"? Or is reverb the wrong path to take to achieve this sound?

I plan on recording the guys with a sm57 dynamic or a MXL990 condenser pointed in their direction through a Duet. Any pointers on mic placement? Should I use both together? What have your experiences been?

Thanks in advance.

[lowfreq33]

In your situation, I'd do a left/right 57/990 track, and then swap the mics and layer another track. Neither of these are really ideal mics for a choir, but you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want. The more layers you add, the bigger it will sound. 4 layers wouldn't be out of the question.I'm not clear as to whether they're playing perc while singing, but I'd suggest you get that in a separate pass from the vocals. You'll have to compress 3-6 db, and add some reverb and a short delay (20-40 ms) to give it some depth.

[philocor]

I'd just use the 990 and make like 3-4 passes. I would think that with 10 people, you'll get enough variation of pitch and time that you won't need to do much but maybe pan them and send it all to a reverb that you like. I wouldn't use the 57 at a distance at all, due to the low-end loss, and the 6k mountain of freq. response. Maybe also have the performers stand in a different order as you layer, and move the mic a little bit up/down, left or right to add different early reflections.