Cardioids in spaced arrays?

[davidvaldes]

Hi.

I´ll be recording a fantastic gig involving a huge choir and orchestra in two weeks. It will also be video taped, so no stands, trees, etc to be seen, which makes very few of my mics can be used, as they are quite bulky.

What I have to do is rent a bunch of discrete ones and hang them from the light rails in the theatre. Got to the local mic renter, and the best thing they can offer me is Neumannn KM184 (they have no omnis SDC).

What I thought was using three (L-C-R) above the choir and same over the orchestra (some more spots will be used on winds, soloists and room). I always thought of spaced arrays with omnis, but I have no access to them at the moment, so cardioids will have to be used.

Is it common, does it work...? Any help, trick, informatioin or advice, will be warmly welcome.

Thanks for your help.

[JEGG]

Directional mic's can be used spaced. Quite a few people do that regularly.

Without knowing anything about your situation, perhaps you might be jumping too quickly at using a lot of mic's.

Using spaced directional mic's lets you move much further back-especially with hypercardioids or figure 8's.

When you move back, often the ensemble balance is pretty good because all of the relative distances between different sources and mic's are minimized.

*If* the performers are nicely positioned, you could try just two spaced hypers or figure 8's

Depending on your mic's, don't be afraid to use plenty of EQ for the bottom, and upper EQ if needed to compensate for distance.

If you can place a directional mic right *on* a surface of suitable size pointed toward the ensemble, your reach will be extended even further. You might try something like that the next time you're out.

Depending on the stage, you *might* get a good recording putting omni's on the floor at the edge of the stage, *if* there is something overhead to reflect the back of the orchestra. If there is a barrier in front of the first row of seats, you could also position boundary mic's on the side or other mic's on the top of that barrier.

Maybe they'll let you put mic's in the center aisle if you're back a little or a lot! You can move the stand into a seating aisle during intermission. Then you could use one hypercardioid and one figure of 8 for mid side. That can work extraordinarily well-and can retrieve a surprising amount of ambience, even from an awful room. You'd need to put them high enough so that the audience doesn't sound close to the mic's. Or put your parallel 8's there.

Keep it simple.

[davidvaldes]

Lots of great information! Thank you very much.