Church Choir Recording

[virtualvisions]

Hi all, newb here

A couple of days ago I recorded the church choir that I'm in, comprised of all high schoolers ranging from no experience to solo singing experience (anyone can join).
I'd like to know what I can do to this or what I'm supposed to do to this to make it sound better. Here's a link to an mp3 of one of the songs that got recorded: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=3093A6A143AADCF7

Our piano accompanist couldn't make the session so one of the singers sight read the parts, hence the slight messup in the middle section.
Recording was done with 2 Rode NT1-As (I know they're pretty hated here, but its all I got) on the choir, a neumann 183 (borrowed from my church ) on the piano, and an sE Electronics sE2200a for the soloists.
All of it was done in a church.

Thanks guys

 

[virtualvisions]

Sorry for the double post,
I thought it might be helpful to include a diagram of where everything was:
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=07F534621EC37646

Don't mind the arrows in the lines, I'm not sure why my drawing program put them there.

 

[true-eurt]

You may want to lock up this thread, and repost it in the mp3 clinic. You would have a better chance of someone listening, and answering your questions.

 

[Fishmed]

I would lower the volume of the percusion and and raise the choir a little. How are you panning the choir's two tracks?

 

[virtualvisions]

How do you lock a thread?

I would lower the volume of the percusion and and raise the choir a little. How are you panning the choir's two tracks?

Unfortunately I don't have a multitrack interface, just stereo, though I should be getting one soon hopefuly. What I did was have the percussion stand with the choir and play from there. In terms of panning the left mic picked up the altos and some men and the right mic picked the sopranos and the other men.

I was also wondering, if you turn the volume up really high you can hear a pretty loud drone in the recording, mainly due to the fact my church has a huge fan in the back of the sanctuary near the top of the ceiling (about 150 feet high). Are there any programs or rack units that can can get rid of or at least dampen this noise while still preserving the singing?

 

[BigRay]

you dont need a multitrack interface to do a choir. as far as HVAC, there are a number of very good noise reduction algorithms that will kill that...nothing you can do about it other than have it turned off. Choir/Orchestra/Symphony/String/Woodwind quartets, anything classical is my bread and butter, and I do about 5-10 choir gigs a month.. with this material, less is more....with a stereo pair you dont "pan" anything....you spend as long as it takes to get the mics in the right spot, and then do minimal processing. This isnt pop or rock or techno..minimalism is KING...which is why it is SO important to have a HQ signal path(no compressors, eqs, finalizers, etc..just mic, pre and ad!) and get the mic placement perfect!

ill dl it and offer my suggestions.

Teddy

 

[BigRay]

sounds good, I wouldve simply done a WIDE omni split(meter or so) and used a spot mic on the soloist,...and took that other mic , put it in the back of the hall, pointed straight up to capture ambience. ambience is VERY important, and there was not enough.

 

[virtualvisions]

Thanks Ray. Is it possible that maybe you could provide me with some links to some noise reduction software?

 

[BigRay]

hmm...well waves makes them...cedar audio, algorithmix,
http://www.voxengo.com/product/redunoise/

I LOVE the voxengo r8 brain pro!