Hawkeye
Member
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2003
- Location
- Aurora, ON, Canada
Hi folks, I'vedone a few searches but don't seem to find quite what I'm looking for inexisting threads. Here's my situation. I'm going to record a group of singers accompanied by acoustic guitar. They are going to sing Christian songs in the Ojibwe language.
I don't know a lot of the details that I should know at this stage of the game (so it's freaking me out) but I'm planning as best I can.
Singers = 5-7
Guitar = acoustic guitar
Venue = unknown, probably a local church (I'm travelling to the church on the day of the recording, 2 hrs. away).
If I can go to a rehearsal beforehand at the actual recording venue, that would be ideal, but I'm not counting on it.
The recording chain will be:
Microphones > Allen &Heath MixWiz 16:2 preamps > A&H Direct Outs > Edirol M16DX line-ins > Computer via USB. Monitoring will be done from the board.
I'll bring my desktop running SONAR X1 Producer and an outboard hard disk to backup the sessions during the day. I'm also going to bring my lap-top running SONAR LE so that I can still track in case I have a computer melt-down.
Guitar
Mic with a Rode M3 condenser. In case bleed ends up to be a problem, I'm also going to hunt down a Dean Markley sound hole pickup to go on the guitar and run an additional channel using an EWI active D.I.to the mixer on a second channel.
Vocals
- One stereo pair of Rode NT1 LDC's in ORTF config. The stereo bar I have lends itself to ORTF better than XY coincident pair.
- For another flavour I'll set up a pair of Behringer SDC C2's (yeah I know) in XY coincident config. I'm not planning for these channels to contribute a lot but it can't hurt, I have them lying around and they sound kind of okay.
- Two Audio Technica AT-4040's set up as spot mics close to the singers so that each one picks up 2-3 singers at a time.
A total of 8 channels.
Questions:
I won't have much time (maybe hardly any at all) to do test recordings so that I can determine the best distance of the microphones to the singers. Any idea of a good starting point for me to try with placement & distance for the:
- Rode NT1 Stereo ORTF array = X distance
- Behringer C2 Stereo XY array = X distance
- Two Audio Technica AT-4040 A-B spot mics = X distance
What about an 'ambient' (room-sound) mic? Do I need some of those too? I'm thinking that my main stereo pair will capture that, depending on how close/far I am from the singers. I can space the XY Behringers further back from the main stereo pair to capture some more ambient detail.
One unknown to me is how this ensemble will sound, as it's an amateur group. In a larger vocal group (like a choir) it wouldn't be as much of a consideration, but with only 5-7 people, it would be easy for one voice to stand out from the others.
Do I need another spot mic, or even individual mics for each of the singers? I've led amateur choirs and have done quite a bit of small ensemble singing myself, so I think I could help them to achieve a reasonably good blend, but.... you never know, stuff happens.
So, tell me I'm crazy and poke holes in my set-up. I've never done this type of recording before, so my initial set-up is what seemed right to me at the time and is naturally subject to change.Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your insights.
I don't know a lot of the details that I should know at this stage of the game (so it's freaking me out) but I'm planning as best I can.
Singers = 5-7
Guitar = acoustic guitar
Venue = unknown, probably a local church (I'm travelling to the church on the day of the recording, 2 hrs. away).
If I can go to a rehearsal beforehand at the actual recording venue, that would be ideal, but I'm not counting on it.
The recording chain will be:
Microphones > Allen &Heath MixWiz 16:2 preamps > A&H Direct Outs > Edirol M16DX line-ins > Computer via USB. Monitoring will be done from the board.
I'll bring my desktop running SONAR X1 Producer and an outboard hard disk to backup the sessions during the day. I'm also going to bring my lap-top running SONAR LE so that I can still track in case I have a computer melt-down.
Guitar
Mic with a Rode M3 condenser. In case bleed ends up to be a problem, I'm also going to hunt down a Dean Markley sound hole pickup to go on the guitar and run an additional channel using an EWI active D.I.to the mixer on a second channel.
Vocals
- One stereo pair of Rode NT1 LDC's in ORTF config. The stereo bar I have lends itself to ORTF better than XY coincident pair.
- For another flavour I'll set up a pair of Behringer SDC C2's (yeah I know) in XY coincident config. I'm not planning for these channels to contribute a lot but it can't hurt, I have them lying around and they sound kind of okay.
- Two Audio Technica AT-4040's set up as spot mics close to the singers so that each one picks up 2-3 singers at a time.
A total of 8 channels.
Questions:
I won't have much time (maybe hardly any at all) to do test recordings so that I can determine the best distance of the microphones to the singers. Any idea of a good starting point for me to try with placement & distance for the:
- Rode NT1 Stereo ORTF array = X distance
- Behringer C2 Stereo XY array = X distance
- Two Audio Technica AT-4040 A-B spot mics = X distance
What about an 'ambient' (room-sound) mic? Do I need some of those too? I'm thinking that my main stereo pair will capture that, depending on how close/far I am from the singers. I can space the XY Behringers further back from the main stereo pair to capture some more ambient detail.
One unknown to me is how this ensemble will sound, as it's an amateur group. In a larger vocal group (like a choir) it wouldn't be as much of a consideration, but with only 5-7 people, it would be easy for one voice to stand out from the others.
Do I need another spot mic, or even individual mics for each of the singers? I've led amateur choirs and have done quite a bit of small ensemble singing myself, so I think I could help them to achieve a reasonably good blend, but.... you never know, stuff happens.
So, tell me I'm crazy and poke holes in my set-up. I've never done this type of recording before, so my initial set-up is what seemed right to me at the time and is naturally subject to change.Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your insights.
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