little orch (brass woodwinds and drum) and a choir...

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It's my really first time I have to record a little orchestra with woodwinds brass a drum and a guitar and a boys choir... I think that I'll go for the ortf with a third mic.... something like a decca tree modified .... Problem 1: my setup: I have a powerbook running DP4 but... an old M-Audio Quattro, two pan condenser mics (not very good...) and a behringer B1 condenser mic, an awful behringer mixer (that I use to send phantom power to my pan mics) and a shark feedback destroyer (behringer) as a preamp for the B1.
Problem 2 the choir isn't big enough and I'll have to amp it...

so 1 what should I buy (remember that I'm running out of $ cos I try to save them for a traveler or an 828mkII) to improve a little my setup.
2 it's better if I record separately children (getting the soudn directly from the mics used to amp them in my quattro 3 and 4 channels) and orch (in ortf) and then final mix the whole turning up the volume of the choir or record in a ortf directly the whole thing taking up the choir from the PA system well mixed with the orch?

Any advice is very very appreciated.
Sorry for my bad english, Lorenzo

[sdemott]

Assuming the setup it something like this:

]------ CHOIR ------[
]----ORCHESTRA-----[
]----CONDUCTOR----[

I would do the following:

]------ CHOIR ------[
]---XY CHOIR SPOT---[
]----ORCHESTRA-----[
]----CONDUCTOR----[
]---MAIN ORTF PAIR--[

Put the XY spots on tall mic stand (like 3 meters up and slightly over the firt row of singers - just listen for the height where the first row & last row is balanced). Then use that to reinforce the main mics. When I do something like that I will start with the main ORTF pair up and slowly bring the XY into the mix until the choir feels balanced and just present enough. You usually don't need too much.

Before you start recording - put your DAW into record mode and then go and stand right where the choir would stand with both stereo pairs active & clap loudly & slowly...I usually give 3 big claps about a second apart. Then later, when you are mixing, you can use the claps to align the XY track to the ORTF track, since there will be a time offset - the XY pair will be ahead of the ORTF pair by a few miiliseconds.

So, to the question of what do you need to buy...see if you can rent what you need.

The total equipment need here is:
2 small diaphragm condensers for the XY pair
2 small diaphragm condensers for the ORTF pair
4 long, good quality mic cables.
A tall or "studio" style mic stand for the XY pair
A regular boom stand for the ORTF pair.

Good luck & let us know how it turns out.

[logo80]

thanx a lot!

[logo80]

I'm working right now on the tunes recorded yesterday. I bought a pair of Akg c1000S and they work very well. On my site you can find a little demo of the work (not choir for now... I have to ask permission to bublish it). http://xoomer.virgilio.it/dedicatedtotriton in the section works&projects
Lorenzo