I thought I replied to this - but apparently not? If the location is a nice sounding one, suitable for singer and piano, then I'd go with your two mics on the piano, but NOT do a two mic approach to the singer, because normally with classical singing, the mouth to mic distance is much higher - so a mic at say 400mm/15" or so gives a nice perspective in a decent space, but if you have another MXL, then put it even further away, but in the same plane - back maybe 1.2m/4ft from the voice. The mics also 'encourage' them to not stray too far. What I would 100% do is make sure the mic positions get the piano out of the cardioid capture area - because you need to balance and blend the piano against the more critical voice, and spill messes this up badly. Of course you can bring the mic in closer, but proximity effect rarely equals a 'classical' timbre. The space is very important - if it is nice, but not really reverby enough you can always add, but if the reverb in the space is chaotic then too much 'air' makes it sound thin, weedy and horrible to listen to. Two different distances on the singer give you options, and the piano will be dictated by condition, position and the lid - as in off, full or half stick, and of course, which way the players right faces, as that's the most potent side. How will you make decisions on the mix? Mono is bizarre. Stereo is the norm. You can mix piano to one channel and voice to the other if you have only a stereo potential - if so, a closed back headphone is essential, but this also kills the two mics for voice. If you must have a mono product - I'd use one of the MXLs and move it about to get the best compromise. I have rarely ever been able to balance an accompanist against a singer like this - you have a singer, a piano and the space, and no second chance. if you have a stereo mixer - the best, worst case technique would be piano left, singer right and sort it out afterwards - but it will be guesswork on success. Not a good process, to be honest. Two MXLs would perhaps suggest in a nice sounding venue a stereo pair (X/Y) to give a more realistic sound - but that again needs the time to experiment. I do this sort of thing often - and with plenty of mic inputs and channels - very often some mics just don;t get used at all, even though they were recorded.

Hi, Paulears, Sorry for just getting to this now, I totally missed the notification you had replied. Thank you so much for the advice. Yeah, I asked around about this and will for sure only use one mic for the singer. The venue is a small church with marble/hard floors and will sound good. It isn't a huge place, so I don't think there will be a ton of reverb. The stereo vs mono, I think I will go with stereo, this is also going to be live streamed, so I hope it doesn't come out too thin on the other side, but I will experiment as much as I can before the performance. As for the MXL mics, do you think the 990/991 will work well? I have read mixed reviews about them, but think they should work. If you have another suggestion for mics that would total under $300, I would be greatly appreciate it. Sincerely, Al

paulears wrote: I thought I replied to this - but apparently not? If the location is a nice sounding one, suitable for singer and piano, then I'd go with your two mics on the piano, but NOT do a two mic approach t

I think you could do it two ways - I think originally you said you had two identical mics that you were going to use on the piano, and you have the 990 (nice mic) and the 991 - a pencil type, which I've not heard but it will be OK. I've re-read it and you will have two 990s and two 991s? Stereo can be done naturally in a church with two identical mics - you have a choice of how to do it. Assuming it's a modest size church with a shortish, but lively reverb (common in the UK with old fashioned churches) you could use just two of the 990s in an X/Y pair and have these in front of the singer and above, gently pointing down - start say 1m in front of her and record that to stereo. Can your Behringer do this via USB? If it can't do USB, then you really need a proper interface. This will give you a 'classical' perspective BUT the piano may be too close and overpower, or too distant. Your options then get trickier. You can move the mics and the singer closer till the balance is right and if you can do this, the realism is high - but distance sets the balance and the reverb content, so it's time consuming. If you have multiple separate channels in an interface, then you use the stereo pair for the singer - the most important source. You can then use one or two mics on the piano, anywhere, and blend the things together back home. What can go wrong? Lots to be fair but stereo accuracy is the big one. Imagine you are listening to the singers stereo capture. She will be in the middle, and with your eyes closed, you should be able to point to the piano - in the background, probably too low and a bit indistinct. Your task is then to add in the properly recorded piano in the same place, and probably with some artificial reverb to make it sound right. That means that even if you use two mics on the piano, the pan controls will be virtually the same place, and you will have to match the real reverb with the piano artificial reverb - so it's not easy. Location recording with a few mics seems so simple compared to recording a band with dozens of mics - but it's harder I think. I've got a few videos on my Youtube channel that might help - try this one to get a basic idea. https://youtu.be/Jm…

althebrewer wrote: Hi, Paulears, Sorry for just getting to this now, I totally missed the notification you had replied. Thank you so much for the advice. Yeah, I asked around about this and will for sure only use one