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I need some tips on recording a quartet. It's a family who sings Southern Gospel. There will be two keyboards recorded direct in. One for a piano sound, the other Organ. I have a home studio with a simi sound proof room adjacent to the control room.

I have one AT 4054. It's a LD condenser. I have an ART pro channel, Mackie Onyx 800R, 4 SM58, two SM57, Rode NT4 matched pair, a few other dynamic and couple of SD condensers.

The interface is MOTU24I/O. DP9.12.

Live with both keyboards or do you intend to record the accompaniment first?

Live with both Keyboards to start with, I guess with the players in the control room and the singers in the sound room for starters. Maybe record each singer individually after the initial first take. I have to do 10 songs, so it will take a while. Time doesn't matter to me, but it probably will to them since they are from out of state.

Assuming that the singers are well rehearsed, I would not record them individually. No matte how well recorded, it will be lifeless compared to recording all at once.

If it's a lead singer/background, it put the lead vocal on the AT and group the backing vocals around the NT4. If it's an ensemble, I'd group all 4 around the RØDE.

Thanks Mike. That's what I needed to know, I think. I have never recorded a quartet. I haven't heard them, but I suspect there will be different people with lead parts at times. I guess I'll set up both mics and try to group them as you suggested.

mikehalloran wrote:Assuming that the singers are well rehearsed, I would not record them individually. No matte how well recorded, it will be lifeless compared to recording all at once.

If it's a lead singer/background, it put the lead vocal on the AT and group the backing vocals around the NT4. If it's an ensemble, I'd group all 4 around the RØDE.

I concur.
May I add, experiment with mic placement. Sometimes it can make or break a recording. The few extra minutes fussing with placement is well worth it.

If you have enough inputs, you could also spot mic with the four SM58's to give some control over blend when mixing. If you do, make sure to phase-align (time shift in your DAW) spot tracks to the stereo pair of condensers. If they use headphones, feed the group the stereo pair only for monitoring when recording.

One advantage of this approach is you can control the location of each singer by the location of his or her spot mic. OTOH, if they are really good, they will move as they perform to self-mix and you won't need the spot mics.