New member seeks advice on micing a chior

[repdog2582]

Our 21 member church chior is doing a series of live programs with an orchestra ranging in size from 18 to 25 pieces. The performances are in a large and very reverberant cathedrial style church with the chior on the alter flanked closely by the orchestra. Four Shure condenser microphones were used on the chior with 2 favoring the front row and the other two on taller stands favoring the back row. Without the orchestra the chior sounds great on the house system but when the orchestra plays the chior is completely overpowered. The orchestra sounds great without any additional amplification. Any suggestions on how to bring up the chior without having the orchestra overwhelm the system would be very appreciated by this first time poster.

[bishopthomas]

Just to clarify: Are you recording this or is your question strictly amplification-based? Chances are that your choir mics are picking up too much of the orchestra. Different mic selection and/or placement might be the best bet, or you may have to rearrange for this to work at all. Don't expect separation if your brass section is playing 3 feet away from half of your choir mics.

[repdog2582]

Thank you very much for responding. My question is about micing the live performance so the audience will hear a pleasing balance between the choir and the orchestra. Even though the audience seemed pleased with the first performance the sound of the choir really was overwhelmed by the 18 piece orchestra and the music director says the next performance will have a 25 piece orchestra! The choir is front and center while the orchestra flanks them on both sides with some woodwinds actually in front and slightly below the slightly elevated choir. The audience should be able to see all of the performers who in turn all need to see the conductor so I'm wondering about trying to create some isolation with plexiglas sheets. I'm sure that this would be cumbersome and very expensive and I'm not sure how effective it would be and wondered if someone here might have had tried something like this or if there were other ideas and suggestions that one of you might have. Thanks again.