Help recording a gospel quartet

[dick swifter]

Hi all, I'm going to be recording a gospel quartet (2 girls/2 guys) tomorrow and wanted to get a few opinions.The tunes are some what contemporary gospel.
I'm trying to decide between:
1) old school: tube mic in omni with singers all around, blending themselves,
triple/quad tracked.
2) Guys on either side of a figure 8 & Girls on either side of another figure 8
triple/quad tracked.
3) Each singer on their own cardiod LDC - triple/quad tracked.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks

[Kiwiburger]

How tight are they? For a contemporary sound I would probably want to be able to isolate and fix things if necessary ...

If they are used to singing together, why not start of with a guide track where they all sing around the omni. Then record just the guys together around the omni, then just the girls together around the omni. Then the individual singers in isolation, maybe and/or with a cardioid. As many takes as you can get - capture all their warm ups, because first takes are usually best.

At mix time you would have a lot of flexibility.

[stevep]

Each singer on there own mic thumbsup


then for stacked tracks all around an omni,
girls and boys cut on seprate tracks

[theblue1]

For a good vocal group, omni is the classic way. Good singers blend themselves in a way that is very hard to recreate. You can try to use compression -- but that can do odd things to the blend. Automation might work -- but the amount of effort into designing the mix could be a lot higher than just working with them in the studio until you got some good takes with good parts and blend. Some groups are big on blend; others are more ornate -- with voices weaving in and out of the harmony and mix.

If they're not really self-blending, then you're probably better off going with separate mics. A lot is going to depend on the singers and their approach.

[KEYBEEETSSS]

I record groups/choirs often; when i want a choir sound, I do condensors figure 8...when i need a group sound, I do all @ the same time but on indivual mics ...always comes out like I need it...always double & depend on the sound i want & the tune a triple....

[WKG]

I did a gospel group a while back and used fig 8 ribbons. Loved the sound and the vibe, perfect for what they did. Of course they were very tight and blended great, nothing needed fixing. I didn't even have to set up a headphone mix.

[Sigma]

Onmi mic and a spaced pair of cardiods

[dick swifter]

Thanks so much for the suggestions. They all make sense. I think I'm going to try the great Mike Tarsia's idea first (Go Philly! - Hey Mike, I used to work at The Warehouse/Sonic and a few times @your place. Legendary.) If they don't blend well, I'll go figure 8's and if that doesn't work I'll do individual mics.

When I'm trying to make 4 people sound like a big choir, I've had luck layering a bunch of passes and putting the singer's in different locations around the (omni) mic for each pass. But I must admit, I don't do gospel stuff all the often, so I really appreciate everyones ideas and for taking the time to respond.




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