piano and flute recording

[studer58]

Next week I'll be recording (in a very nice recital hall with great acoustic ) mainly solo piano, but also a few pieces with flute and piano together. I have MKH 8020 pair and also NT5 omni/cards and a U89 available. Any suggestions on mic placement which will capture a good balance between the instruments and a good room sound also ? My hunch is to go for simplicity, the 8020 pair as spaced omnis on a bar about 6 feet out from the piano, and about 6-8 feet high. This has worked well before. Then when the the flute joins she can simply face the piano and the mic pair will be in the middle, between the 2 instruments. Mixing or balancing will then simply be a case of bringing the flute closer or further according to what sounds right in the monitoring. Flute will be centred between the mic pair, but body movement will possibly cause a little image shift as she plays ? Does this sound reasonable, or would others suggest ORTF...or perhaps M/S using the Neuman and NT5's ?
Thanks for your inputs and thoughts

[Gerax]

You can go as you described, but I would put up some spots, just in case they want to twaek the balance later (...they always want to...). So I'd eventually set up a main ORTF stereo (about 10' far, 8' high) pair and put another pair on the piano curve, 1' back with a small ORTF bar, NT5 could be good for this job. Also, a spot on flute (U87 in cardioid mode) about 7' high so that perspective shifts cause by player's movement could be minimized (flutist usually tend to move quite a bit...).
Check phase between spots and mains and use spots later if you think they can add focus or correct some balances when mixing. Remember, you'ure not forced to use spots in the mix, but better to have them recorded and not use them than being in need without having them recorded...

Hope this helps

L.G.

[mosrite]

8020 set up as an A-B main pair and then the u89 on fig 8 as piano spot using the plane of null to bias against the flute