Choir and Organ recording mic placement!?

[bradley]

Hi everyone,

I've got a recording coming up in a couple of weeks. I've already posted some questions about this on the SOS forums and got some very useful info. I thought I would post here too just to see what comes up!

It's taking place at The Chapel - Tonbridge School

The choir will be about 60-80 people with organ, performing a variety of Christmas music. It isn't a live concert so I can do as I wish with regards to mic placement. I'll be running the mics into a seperate control room with my Genelec monitors and AKG 701 to use for reference.

My plan is to use Sennheiser MKH mics (I'm renting so have access to the whole series) as I've used those in the past with good results.

I'd like to know what type of layout and arrangement people whould be inclined to use. The last time this choir recorded there they positioned the choir with the organ behind it. This could allow for the use of a single pair (ie ORTF, Blumlein ect) positioned to balance the choir and organ or an XY pair with Omni outriggers or something along those lines.

The director has suggested putting the choir in the stalls which would have the organ directly to the right of the choir. In this case I'd be inclined to use several figure of 8's for the choir (to reject organ) spaced out and a spot pair for the organ.

Or put the choir towards the end of the chapel facing the organ. I could then use an ORTF pair on the choir and a pair on the Organ and possibly. If we chose this option the distance between choir and organ would be around 20 meters.

I'll have 10 mic channels available to me on the day and it will be mulit-tracked so I can use additional pairs even if its just to experiement. I'll also be trying out my Beyer MC930 pair on this recording to see how they hold up.

I'd love to hear any opinions on how to tackle this one. The most important thing is for the performers and director to be at ease in order to deliver the best performance. For this reason I feel that the choir positioned on the altar facing the organ would give them the most space.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! So many ways to tackle this one!

Thanks
Bradley

[Ozpeter]

Many possibilities, but you need first to ensure that it's going to work for the musicians, in terms of the the organist and choristers being able to hear each other and see the conductor easily. Then work around that. If there's a setup they are used to, that it most likely to work best musically. Let the recording be the servant of the music rather than the other way round.

I once recorded carols with choir, organ, and substantial brass at Portsmouth Cathedral. As I recall it I used three stereo pairs, with the choir arranged below the organ, and brass facing the choir, with two stereo pairs in the centre back to back (kind of 'in the round') with the conductor in the middle. The third stereo pair was up the other end of the cathedral for distant reverb (and for picking up the rumble of the ferries coming into the harbour...).

[sonare]

If you go to my website and look at the pics you will see a venue similar to this at Christ Church Cathedral (Nashville, not Oxford <G>). Your goal should be capturing an ideal sound of choir, and the organ is part of that sound-- so don't try to reject it.

The director's suggestion is not far off the mark but I would suggest arranging the choir so they are singing down the long axis of the room. Putting them at the altar end will guarantee ensemble problems, however.

I always use a Royer SF12 main with omni flankers, but with the MKH series you have available I would space 4 omnis across the choir-- about 10-12 feet up and no closer than 10 feet from the choir. You may want to keep the choir about 10-15 feet from the organ and run up an ORTF pair for SLIGHT touchup. Be careful about position so as not to get mostly Ruckpositiv rather than Great and Swell. IOW you will need to get REALLY high up. The organist almost certainly has CCTV for seeing the conductor, and you should inquire ahead of time whether this can be re-aimed for your sessions.

Since you have the channels, run a pair of omni room mics about 35 feet from the choir-- 15-20 feet up and about 6 feet apart. Your may want to roll off the LF of this pair in your mix, or the sound could get rather ponderous. This totals 8 channels. Solo mics should be discouraged-- have them stand at the front of the choir. However, it would be prudent to have a cardioid or two just in case. Keep them an arm's length from the singer.

Enkoy-- this looks like a great project!

Rich

[bradley]

Thanks Rich for the advice. Greatly appreciated. I've already taken a look at the organist monitor system for viewing the conductor. Its well setup and has switching on it which covers most of the cathedral floor area which will help!