Recomend me a mic for use on girls voice in a church like hall(My First Thread)

[Blast9]

You could try something like the Shure beta 87 --- A hand-held condenser mic designed for live work with good rejection of other instruments to the sides and behind, even close by --- they're around £250

I'd also suggest a couple of PZM/boundary mics to capture everything in the hall. Stick 'em on a wall or floor out of the way

For instruments, you want to look for a small-diaphragm condenser mic with as flat a response as possible to capture the natural tone of the instrument. Perhaps look into CAD mics -- they seem to get good reviews around here. Not too expensive either.

If you end up using a small-diaphragm condenser for vocals, you need to beware of plosives ("P" and "B" consonants), and the singer's breath ( ) A pop shield will help you there!

[James Roper-Kum]

Thanks for that man.

Could you tell me.....do you think the Sure mic would work well at distance? I dont think the singers will be experienced enough to use a handheld.

Thanks again for the advice.

James

[Bassace]

hi
I always found the AKG 414 to work well on girls voices, ok for piano too try to get a stereo pair going if the acoustics allow it

[James Roper-Kum]

Thanks again guys.

Can I ask...

Do you think it would be nessesary to use a pop shield on the 414 and beta 87? are they considered large diaphragm mics?

@ Bassace...would you stereo pair the vocal and piano at the same time as well as mono mic the vocal? and stereo pair the piano

Cheers

James

[Blast9]

Originally Posted by James Roper-Kum

Thanks for that man.

Could you tell me.....do you think the Sure mic would work well at distance? I dont think the singers will be experienced enough to use a handheld.

Thanks again for the advice.

James

No --- its designed for "close contact" really. Bass roll-off is too drastic at a distance.

RE: pop-filter. Yes you would need one. The 414 is a large diaphragm. The Shure isn't, although they do have LDCs like the KSM32 and 44.

I guess it depends on your budget what you'll go after.

RE: stereo pair --- that's for the piano, or I guess you could use it for ensembles too, again if the room sounds nice. Chech out Microtech Gefell too!

[Bassace]

James ?? how many singers are we talking about here ? is this a choir?

[James Roper-Kum]

Thanks again guys

The same day (an A-level music recital) I will also want to record French horn and clarinet solos + Piano accompaniments. Do you think the 414 is versatile enough to cover these instruments too. Say if I purchased 2 XLS's (for Stereo) and one XL11 for instrument/voice.
I'm in the business of promoting the excellence of the musicianship at the school with superb recordings made with gear that is going to last and be reliable after my leaving.
The hall has quite a nice reverb (I think).I could post a clip of the reverb of the hall as well as some measurements of the space.

I have an Edirol R-09 Sound recorder I could use to capture the hall, and two C1000s' (any good on piano? or Clarinet or Horn)

@ Bassace-----One voice at a time.

[woomanmoomin]

The C414s are supposed to be some of the most versatile mics on the market, certainly in their price bracket, as well as having really low self-noise, etc.; I'm sure you could get good results with these mics. I doubt you would need the gold-grille version that much, though, as the stuff I've read suggests it may not be all that different from the silver-grille one, you know. The gold-grille mic has a bit more of a presence peak and maybe a touch more commercial sheen, but I'm not sure you would ever need that on classical recordings. Either mic should be bright enough to bring out the best in any of your female singers anyway.

Also, in case you're likely to do a lot of ensemble recordings, it might be worth scouring the Internet for a few articles on some of the many different stereo microphone (placement) techniques employed to record orchestral and other ensemble music, before you commit yourself to any purchases. Here is one article to get you started, in case this would help: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997...reomiking.html I don't know whether you were actually intending to use the two silver-grille mics as stereo room mics, together with the one gold-grille mic as the centrepiece mic. I think a great thing for you would be to find a really nice pair of stereo room mics to capture the church sound. Somebody else more familiar with this territory can maybe confirm whether these three mics would be appropriate for such an overall setup.

P.S. In your position, I would probably have a look at the ADK TL as well. It's not the quietest or most sensitive mic around, so it might not be the best for recording subtle room ambience, or for instruments/material covering a wide dynamic range (e.g. highly nuanced acoustic guitar), but it is supposed to offer a transparent tone that should also be a bit more neutral than the tone of the C414s (which are on the bright side, though no worse for that). It was supposedly designed for all those 'critical' recordings of chamber music etc. I haven't used it, and I doubt it would simply outdo the C414s (if only because they're supposed to be quite different from it) but it might just be right up your street, not least because you can bag a matched pair from Turnkey for £450 or something. Maybe ask around.

[Blast9]

I've only had experience wih the C414 U-BLS version, which were quite natural and un-hyped sounding IIRC.

Stereo techniques:

So long as the room sounds nice, 2 mics as a Blumlein pair could work very nicely if you can get a nice direct vs room balance (crossed pair both in fig-8 mode)

[James Roper-Kum]

@Woomanmoomin

Thank you very much for your lengthy reply. I cant believe how helpful every one is. Thank you thank you thank you. Checking out the mics now. I suppose the brighter sounding the mic the more careful you have to be with position. Sure, a more transparent and less obtrusive pickup would be more appropriate for a more uniform capture (ensemble style).

@Blast9 Cheers. Yeah I heard the new 414's were quite bright sounding.
Crossed pair both in fig-8 mode is a method I have not experimented with yet. Looking forward to that.

@everyone

I'll be taking all suggestions on board and will let you know what I choose, how the recording goes and perhaps and example for you all to critique.

If anyone has had experience recording solo instruments (voice, clarinet, french horn, flute, violin) with piano accompaniment could you let me kow how it went.

Cheers

James