Recording an acapella group live

[sssaudio]

Hey,
This is my first post here. I figured it's about time I start speaking to people about this stuff who ain't necessarily in my neighborhood.
I've got a gig coming up recording an acapella choir. I've done this type of stuff before, but It's always good to get refreshing ideas from other people.
My main concern regarding these concerts is always the following: the soloists.
This particular performance will be done in a relatively small room, with about 30-40 people in the audience. There will be no live sound reinforcement so I don't have to worry about bleed from any speakers. I'll be micing the group with a couple of stereo mic techniques, but when it comes to micing the soloists. I haven't found anything that sits perfectly with me. What I usually do is set up a soloist mic (or two if it is required) and I set them up behind the stereo setups. This helps in a couple of ways. One, it still lets the soloist come forward towards the audience, and two, it moves the soloist behind the stereo pairs (mostly in the null points of the mics) letting me maintain control over the mix of the group without worrying about the solo level (obviously there will be a little bleed). My main issue is that with different soloists their performance dynamics differ radically from song to song and having to try and fix it "in the mix" later on is a real pain.
So far though, this is the best I';ve been able to come up with, that leaves me with the most control of the group and the soloist separately.

Any thoughts out there?

 

[littledog]

Why is "fixing it in the mix" a real pain? Seems like a very easy fix. Just set the level of each solo so that the total blend sounds good. Even if you don't have volume automation, if you are going to divide the recording into individual tracks, it is natural to make a seperate mix for each song anyway.

 

[NYMorningstar]

Here's an option. Have the choir stand in an almost solid semi-circle with the mics on the open end. It's a bit profound but it works real well. This way they have a handle on monitoring themselves.

In my experience with choirs, the main problem is they stand in rows and the back can't hear the front and the front can't hear themselves yada yada yada... If it's a small room they're hearing reflected sound, a real mess. In a larger room, you can use a PA with lots of mics and floor monitors and that works somewhat if you have lots of mics but the cabling tends to be a PITA.

If you aren't using live sound re-inforcement like you said, try the circle if you can manage the arguments(especially hard if it's all about how we look ). You'll hear some real sweet harmonies. If the choir still can't handle volumes for the soloist, have them stand around a circle of mics and have the soloist step forward. I suggest you try a few rehearsals and don't forget you're in a church

 

[BigRay]

use an ORTF pair and maybe a couple of omni or cardiod spots on the choir, and for the soloists, throw a blumlein array there.

if the room is good, dont forget your ambience mics...throw a pair out a good bit away from the main arrays, facing the opposite direction, and down about 10db from the others...gives a real "being there" feeling.




dont go overboard or think too much. KISS. less is more in this realm.
consider that a lot of the most loved classical recordings(symphony and choir) were made with only a stereo pair.....