School choir micing with band

Jon Majors

Active Member
I am needing to mic a choir of 80 singers being accompanied by a 60 member concert band at our school. What recommendations do you have for assembling the band and choir for best micing possibilities? We can try splitting the choir up and going on either side of the band, or splitting the band up and going on either side of the choir, OR trying to put the entire band on one side of the stage and the choir on the other (my last option). Would you use hanging mics or booms? What about lavaliers on principal singers? I obviously don't want to pick up the band with the microphones. Thanks all for your help!
 
Somehing to think about - who is directing? Typically I would want one conductor in charge of both groups, so when we do this I set up the risers behind the band against the back wall or shell, and then use hanging mics to reinforce the chorus. You do pick up some of the band, but it does a decent job of it.

Chris
 
Somehing to think about - who is directing? Typically I would want one conductor in charge of both groups, so when we do this I set up the risers behind the band against the back wall or shell, and then use hanging mics to reinforce the chorus. You do pick up some of the band, but it does a decent job of it.

Chris
Thanks for the reply. We will have 1 conductor, and unfortunately, there isn't room for the choir to be behind the band because of percussion. We have a shallow stage :(
 
When I do the semi-annual middle school concerts, the choir risers are on the left side of the orchestra section, choir piano on the right side of the choir risers behind the orchestra. We're in a large gym and the audience bleachers are very wide so this gives everyone a pretty good view of both orchestra and choir.

For micing I use pencil mics on tripod stands, 7ft in the air and pointing down about 30 degrees. One mic in front of each riser section (we use 4 risers). I have wireless handhelds on round-base stands in front of the risers for the soloists. The choir director adjusts the solo mics as needed per song.

I have several pencil mics on the orchestra in front and back to pick up sound as evenly as possible, and one pencil mic on the piano. I have a piano monitor that plays into the choir risers that are away from the piano, just enough to pull the piano sound around for the benefit of the singers. In my case most of the choir songs are with piano only, a few include the orchestra.
 
"Loudest sound at the mic, wins.".
 
Is the goal to get the choir voices on top of the band sounds? This seems like a musical thing, and with 80 voices that's going to be a real task to mic over a 60 piece band. Is the room acoustically treated or designed for this type of production or is it a gymatorium? I'd try to keep your microphones as far away from the musical instruments as possible! Close enough to block out the band but close enough to get voices and not mush, and still not pick out individual voices, will be key here. What age group? Is singing over the band not an option?
 
In a concert band, the loudest instruments are brass (especially trumpets) and percussion. You want those as far from the choir as possible. Since the woodwinds (flutes, clarinets, saxes) are generally softer, I'd put the choir next to them. That would mean the choir is on one side of the stage and band on the other. That will also help the choir sing because they can hear themselves better than if they were split in two. Hopefully, you have a cooperative and understanding director. Diplomacy and explaining the reasons may help.

I would use any kind of cardioid mic on boom stands. A small diaphragm condenser mic would be the choice, but whatever you have a few of will work, even SM58s. It would be best if all are the same model. More spacing between mics is better than having them too close together. Spread them every 6-9 feet across the choir. It's tempting to put many mics on a big choir, but 4-5 is all you want.

If you want to get into the theory, the spacing should use the 3:1 rule to avoid comb filtering from multiple mics picking some of the same voices. For every 1 unit of distance from the source to the mic, the next nearest mic should be a minimum of 3 units away. The number of open mics rule (NOM) also comes into play. That says that as we increase the number of open mics, the less gain before feedback we can get. It drops by 3 dB every time the number of mics doubles.

On your mixer, apply high-pass filters on each mic. If adjustable, 100 Hz would be good to reduce pick up of bass energy from the band.
 

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